


Papa is a student

by cisco_centric_4ever



Series: Breaking the demon [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Attempted Kidnapping, Child Abuse, Forced Feminization, Forced Pregnancy, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kidnapping, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-03-15 10:17:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 51,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13611288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cisco_centric_4ever/pseuds/cisco_centric_4ever
Summary: Naruto, the village pariah, has been keeping a secret from his friends for a long time. He never wanted them to find out that he was the cause of all the night the Kyuubi attacked. But when Shikamaru and Chouji get pulled into his world, the three of them now have to keep their own secret from everyone that they were supposed to trust. Why? Because there is darkness around every corner and one wrong move could land them in a boiling pot.Along the way, they find a friend in Hinata, a shy girl that have admired Naruto's braveness for many years.  With her help, they try to keep their secret hidden as best they could in a village filled with experienced ninjas.However, it seems like faith has other plans for them as all four are kidnapped one day on a wrongly labeled C-rank mission.  They must fight together to survive the clutches of their capture, but the question is, will they be strong enough to escape, even with the help of Mist Demon and his faithful student?





	1. Oct. 10

**Author's Note:**

> The inspiration for this story was from another story I read on the Fanfiction site. It was called "Mama is a student" I loved it so much that I made my own version of it. How you all like it. If you don't then oh well, this was mostly for me anyway.

Shikamaru looked up at the sky, it was getting dark and he would have to go home soon. His eye wandered over to his two best friends sitting next to him. Chouji Akamichi, as always, was munching away on his endless bag of chips. Next to Chouji was his other best friend four, going on five, years, Naruto Uzumaki. Shikamaru had no idea what to make of Naruto when they became friends at the park when they were six, his mother came to the park to pick him up since his dad was on a mission, and told him to never play with Naruto ever again. He didn't understand why that was, sure the blond would pull these troublesome pranks every now and again, but that was no reason to really stop being friends with the guy, was it? He was sure that Naruto was just doing it to get attention, and he was right, Naruto was doing it to get attention, but it wasn't the right kind. He could tell that Naruto wanted some positive attention, he didn't want negative ones. However, that's all he ever got. Every time Shikamaru would be walking the streets on his way to do something, he would always see some villagers giving Naruto a hard time, sometimes it was for his pranking ways, other times it was for something totally unrelated. Like when Naruto was just standing in front of a store looking at a mask, the shop owner just threw the thing at him just because he was looking at it. It was almost like the man thought that Naruto had somehow put a spell on it just by staring at it so hard, that was a troublesome thought. 

 

Ever since he had met the blond, there has always been this...something that makes him feel that he hasn't found out everything he thought he had about his friend. He sighed, he was so troublesome, plus he and Chouji had to leave for the Kyuubi festival sooner than the time they usually leave the park. He would have much rather spend that time star gazing rather than being stuffed into a formal yukata and be carted off to the festival like some sort of show pony. So very troublesome indeed.

 

"Well, I guess you guys will have to go now, tonight's the Kyuubi festival, right?" Naruto spoke up, surprising the two boys a little with his words. Naruto looked at them and shrugged his shoulders, "what?"

 

"Nothing, I just thought you might have forgotten since you never go," Chouji said as he started to put away his chips.

 

Shikamaru sat up and looked at the blond, "he's right, how come you never go to the festival? Don't you want you, I mean it is troublesome to be all formal about it with our clan traditions all at, but it's not so bad."

 

Naruto shrugged his shoulders as he stood up, "um, I don't really feel like going, besides, you guys have t be with your families at the festival, right? I don't really have anyone else to go with, so I just don't go."

 

Chouji and Shikamaru stood up next, Shikamaru could see that Naruto was clearly not telling them something, but what could it be? Not knowing something about his friends really bugged the little Nara, and he really wanted to find out what it was. He sighed at himself for the amount of trouble he was about to put himself in for doing this, but he just had to find out what the blond was hiding.

 

Turning to Chouji he said, "come on, let's get home before our mom's come looking for us. We'll see you later Naru," he started walking away from the blond, a confused Chouji trailing behind him, waving goodbye to their friend. 

 

When they finally disappeared around a corner, Chouji spoke up, "why'd we leave like that? I thought that you were going to invite him to the festival with us this time."

 

Shikamaru had stopped walking, "oh, we're going to the festival with him," he said, confusing Chouji more. He turned to his friend with a lazy smirk, "but first, we're going to find out what he's hiding from us. Besides, there's something else that keeps bothering me, like his birthday, do you know when it is?" Chouji's eyes widened a little, he didn't know, either did Shikamaru, "that's what I thought, we're going to go find him and then we're going to that festival. Maybe now we'll also know where he lives too."

 

Chouji smiled, "you're pretty smart Shika, but wouldn't Naruto be mad that we found out something that he didn't want to us to know about?"

 

Shikamaru smiled at his best friend, "don't worry Chouji, we're his friends, and he doesn't really seem to have anyone else in his corner. If what we find out about his is something bad, then we're keeping it a secret from everyone else and protect him." Chouji seemed to be a little in awe at what Shikamaru was saying but nodded his head anyway. "Come on, let's go back before we lose him," he said as they rushed back over to the clearing that they had been using for cloud watching, they were just in time to see Naruto speeding off in the opposite direction that they always saw him take. "He's getting away, let's go!" Shikamaru and Chouji then followed Naruto all the way home, using back allies and empty streets to get there.

* * *

 

 

Naruto was dreading today, he always dreaded this day. This one day out of the whole year, this was the one that filled him with fear and hate for this villagers. Today was his birthday and he had just managed to get out of another almost invite to go to the celebration of some giant fox and his hero. It was a festival that was filled with people that were unknowingly celebrating his birthday but was also wishing for his death, the irony thick. So, since his friends had left before him this time, he took his usual route home instead of the false way that would make them think that he lived in Konoha proper as if the villagers would allow it, and he couldn't afford it anyway. He managed to make it through to his small apartment in the red light district without much of anyone outside of its residence noticing him at all. 

 

Or so he thought.

 

Naruto had just locked up his door and was starting on locking the rest of the doors and windows to his home when a knock came to his door. The initial knock nearly gave him a heart attack, but then he noticed something. The sound was small and light, not like the usual pounding that would accompany this day. He took a chance, after much debate with himself, to answer the door and was shocked to see his two friends standing there out of breath, right at his front door. Confusion took hold of him for a second before he pulled them both into his apartment and reapplied all of his locks and listen to see if anyone had noticed that he was in the apartment. He breathes a sigh when he still heard nothing more than the usual cheers for the festival in the distance and the much closer sounds of the red light district beyond his door. With this done, he turned around to face his two friends.

 

"What are you guys doing here? Shouldn't you be at home with your families getting ready for the festival and fireworks?" Naruto wasn't angry, far from it, he was more worried than anyone because of what today meant for him, and possibly anyone that was caught with him. If he couldn't find a way get Shikamaru and Chouji out of the area before the mobs started pounding on his doors, then they would see another side of him that he didn't want them to see. His worrying didn't go unnoticed though.

 

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Chouji asked, worried about his friend.

 

"And why do you live here of all places?" Shikamaru asked, his eyebrows furrowed as he looked around the rundown apartment, it seemed as though this was the place that the blond lived, either that, or he was using it as a living space. Shikamaru didn't like that thought one bit, "this is the red light district, my dad comes here all the time to drink with his friends, it's a place for grown us, not kids like us."

 

"Yeah, why are you living here and not with your parents?" Chouji asked.

 

Naruto's shoulders slumped at this final question, he couldn't really hide a whole lot anymore. He didn't want to tell them the whole truth though, so he told them something, "I don't have parents."

 

Shikamaru looked at his friend, his blond hair was shadowing his eyes so he could tell that this was something hard for him to tell them. "Okay, that's fine with us, but why are you living in the adult district and not in the orphanage or some apartment were the other orphans are usually staying to keep them safe?"

 

Naruto clenched his hands in to fist, "I can't go anywhere like that." 

 

"But why not? I'm sure that the council w-" Chouji started but was cut off by the blond.

 

"I can't go anywhere but here, and I sure as hell can't trust the council as far as I could through any of them! You guys don't know this, but the village hates me," Naruto said, squeezing his eyes shut as he spoke.

 

Shikamaru was quite for a long time as he looked at his blond friend, this situation was getting heated and he wanted to cool done the blond before things took a bad turn. He walked forward and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, the blond was startled by the sudden touch and looked up at the Nara, who was smiling lazily at him. "I don't give a damn about the council, but you're my friend and I don't want to see one of my friends in pain, got it?" Naruto looked at them for a long time before a smile, a real one, broke out onto his face. "So, you gonna tell us why these idiots hate you, or what?"

 

Naruto's smile faltered a little before falling completely, "I don't really know why, but it has something to do with this day, I know it does."

 

"They Kyuubi festival?" Chouji asked, "what does that have to do with you?"

 

"Because...." Naruto paused as he looked both of his friends in the eyes, "today is also my birthday."

 

Shikamaru and Chouji's eyes widen, no it was starting to make seen so him. All the glaring, the whispered comments that they would hear whenever they with Naruto walking around the village. The reason why Naruto would walk a few steps behind them so it didn't look like he was with them. it was starting to come together, but there was still a pretty big piece that was missing and Shikamaru had a feeling that it was just on the tip of his tong, but he couldn't reach it just yet. It was also getting a little hot in here, was the AC not working or something? Oh right, they were in a run-down building, when he first saw the place, he thought that it was somewhere that was ready to fall at any given moment. Why would Naruto be forced to live here though? Shikamaru knew there was funding for orphans, like Sasuke after the massacre happened, but why not Naruto? 

 

Shikamaru shook himself from his thought, remembering what he had come here to do. "Well, since it's your birthday, then I say that it's high time you celebrated it!" 

 

"Yeah, we can go to the festival for your birthday Naruto. We can play games and win prizes, and eat lots and lots of food! And best of all, we'll get to watch the fireworks," Chouji started off happy and cheerful that he would finally get to celebrate his friend's birthday with him, but the look on Naruto's face told him that was not going to happen. "What's the matter?"

 

"I can't go to the festival, Chouji, I can't. Didn't you hear me before? Everyone in the village hates me! I can't go out at night, especially not tonight, they'd-" Naruto was cut off when his lungs started to react to the sudden smoke that was filling the air. That was then he realized how hot it was getting in the building, he looked around and saw that there was smoke rising from some cracks in the floorboards, Shikamaru and Chouji noticed what he was looking at and was shocked. Naruto was shaken from his staring at the smoking floor when a sudden crash from the bathroom window caught his attention, he looked over to the open bathroom door just in time to see a bottle with a flaming rack start to set fire to the bathroom. Using his wits about himself, Naruto rushed forward and closed off the fire from spreading to the rest of the apartment too soon, this was going to give them enough time to escape, he just hopes that no one caught them when they did.

 

"Come on guys, we've got to get out of here, cover your noses with your shirts and follow me so that the smoke doesn't suffocate you!" Naruto ordered as he followed his own advice and covered his own nose with his shirt and led them to his bedroom, he closed the door behind them and pushed away his bed for uncovering the hidden trap door. He moved quickly and allowed his friends to go down the secret tunnel first before following them down, he made a mental note to make sure that the next place he found to live in was a little less flammable then this one. The building was made completely of wood and therefore was easiest to burn, so a place made of brick and stone maybe? Getting out of the tunnel, Naruto guided them away from the fire and put the latter of an old billboard for cereal, where they sat and watched Naruto's run down apartment catch fire and burn completely. The place was unsavable, but yet there were some ANBU there trying to put out the fire and taking the fire makers off to jail, maybe they did that so the fire wouldn't spread, maybe because the Hokage ordered it, he wasn't sure. He didn't much care, this wasn't the first home that he had lost to the villager's, it probably won't be the last, he sighed as he watched old man Hokage arrive on the scene to help put out the fire alongside the ANBU.

 

Meanwhile, Chouji and Shikamaru were shaken. They did not realize that when they had followed Naruto to his home that this would happen, did this happen because of them? Should they not have followed him here? What would have happened if they just left him alone? Would he have been able to notice the fire sooner and get out faster? So may questions went through their heads that they started blaming themselves for being nosy and butting into Naruto's business, but still, they didn't want to leave the blond to fend for himself. It was bad enough that they found out that Naruto was hated by the whole village, but to find out how much they hated him to make him homeless was a whole another thing entirely. "Naruto, I-" Shikamaru was about to say when suddenly a sharp pain hit the back of his neck and his world went black.

 

Naruto heard Shikamaru's small voice, it was shaky and he didn't want to look at his friends at that moment. The shame he felt for putting them in danger was overwhelming, but when he didn't hear Shikamaru continue, he looked back to see why. His heart nearly jumped from his throat at the site of Chouji being held hostage and Shikamaru knocked out cold. There was a man holding Chouji at knifepoint, a twisted smirk and a glare on his face so heated that it put the fire from his building to shame. "Well, well, well, look what we have here, the Kyuubi and his two captives, what? Did you brainwash them to come with you? Or you trying to poison the minds of our children now, is that it?" The man sneered at Naruto, the blond shook his head in fear, he was so scared for his friends right now that he would do just about anything to save them, the man could sense this and his smile turned into a wicked smile, "don't worry. If you behave, I'll let your friends go," the man nudged his head to the other side of the billboard, "start moving, my friends are waiting for us."

 

Naruto trusted that this man was going to hurt, hurt him very badly, but he didn't care. As long as his friends were alright, he didn't care what happened to himself, he just wanted them to be alright. He followed the man's directions, turning back to watch as he still held Chouji at knifepoint and Shikamaru was tossed over one shoulder like a rag. He kept walking and stayed silent thought, making sure that he didn't do anything to upset the man any further. But when Naruto saw that they were on the backstreet on their way to a local bar that was known for adult entertainment, Naruto had a feeling that tonight was going to be the worst birthday yet. Though he was still hoping for a something good to happen. 

 

"Oi, Tony, what you got there, I thought you were only bringing the demon, not some tag-a-longs with ya." Said, one man, when they entered the back room of the bar, this man was muscular and had scars just about everywhere. He looked like a typical thug and the picture was reinforced with all the women that were hanging off of his arm as he sat on an old beat-up couch. 

 

The man that kidnapped them, Tony, chuckled at the thug looking guy, "don't worry about it boss, the demon seems to have brainwashed them at some point I thought that some of our guys could help break them out of it and show them the light."

 

The thug guy looked at the three children, he smirked, "put them in a room together, get them ready for me. You know what to do," he said as he got up from the chair, leaving behind the women before he disappeared from Naruto's view.

 

Tony chuckled, "looks like it's your lucky day, demon, you get to have the boss all to yourself," he laughed as he ignored Naruto's please to leave his friends alone. This man wasn't going to listen to Naruto, not a single word, and this made Naruto even more worried as he was forced into a dark room or watch as Tony slices Chouji's neck open.

* * *

 

 

It felt like hours had passed before the men got tired and left the three boys alone. Shikamaru had woken up a while Tony was talking to his boss. He was trying to come up with a plan, but there was nothing that could be done, he was forced to watch as Naruto begged on his hands and knees for them to not hurt hir friends as they hurt him. But after everything that was said and done, the only one of the group that physically unharmed was Chouji. Well, not visibly harmed anyways, there was a point during the whole thing where Chouji was taken away from either of their view and they could hear him screaming as well, but they didn't know what was wrong with him. When they were nearing the end, that was when Chouji was brought back, barely conscious, but still breathing. Now the three of them were alone and he could not even think about what to do next, he looked at Naruto and wondered if this was why he ever wants to hang out for too long on the day of the festival. He would always tell them that he had something to do that day and sometimes they wouldn't see him for two days after. Naruto was checking over Chouji, making sure that he was alright before doing the same to Shikamaru, the Nara just stayed quiet as he let the blond look over his wounds, it hurt too much to move and Naruto was the one who got it the worst. But still Naruto was moving, it was clear that he was in way more pain than either him or Chouji was, yet it seems that he wasn't focusing on the pain.

 

A few more moments of silence went between the three as Chouji woke up and watched Naruto limp around the room. "What are you doing?" The Akamichi finally asked as Naruto came back over to them.

 

"I found some clothes for you guys to wear," Naruto said in a monotone voice that told them that he was close to breaking himself, but wasn't going to do it in front of them. "Here," he hands them some clothes that were discarded by the men that hurt them before.

 

Shikamaru got an oversized black long sleeved shirt and a matching, oversized pants. Chouji got a light blue sweet shirt that hung loosely on him but kept his pants from the previous day. Naruto was able to find a large t-shirt that fit him like a dress with the leaf symbol on it and some pants that one of the women left behind. He turned back to them after pulling the shit on over his head after the pants were tied to his waist with a ripped up piece of shirt on the ground, he gave Shikamaru the other piece to do the same with his oversized pants. When it seemed that they were dressed enough to go out, he led them out through the back of the room, an old emergency exit made to look like an old shed in the back off the bar. He led them to school without a word passing between them, they were still sort of light-headed from all the drugs that had been used on and around them, Shikamaru was still seeing double, even after the drug was supposed to wear off. Unlike Naruto, due to his healing factor, Shikamaru still had some needle marks from when one of the women were testing to see what it looked like when a kid got high, but one of the men made sure that they were able to sober up in the end. A bucket of cold water and another needle mark of something that made the two boys painfully aware of what was going on around them. There was no doubting it, after this night, the three boys knew that they had lost that naive innocence that they once had the day before. 

 

Reaching the academy almost an hour and a half early was something that they were thankful for. They walked to the bathroom and washed away as much of the previous night's events that they could before heading to the classroom. They still didn't speak when they sat down in the back of the room, they all had a lot to think about, Naruto more than anyone had the most to think about, Shikamaru and Chouji noticed that Naruto was sporting a deep-in-thought look that they had seen him wear after previous Kyuubi festivals. It was then that the two wonder how often this sort of thing happened to Naruto, it was like they had been blinded by something their whole lives and now they finally see what's in front of them. Why didn't they see the blond suffering before? He was so loud and boisterous before that this side of him was alien, and it scared them. How could they not notice this before?"

* * *

 

 

Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sandime Hokage of the village hidden in the leaves, Konoha, was beyond pissed. Not only did he have to put out another fire on Naruto's home, but he had to deal with two sets of parents reporting that their sons didn't come home that night. Though these were not just simple children, they were clan heir's and this made him worry, he was busy looking for Naruto around the village when Shikaku and Chouza came up to him with their respective wives following behind them as they told him about their sons. Hiruzen told them not to worry since they had to turn up sooner or later and he had already sent out ANBU looking for the boys before the parents finished telling them that they were missing and when they had last seen both boys. It turns out that Shikamaru Nara, heir to the Nara clan, and Chouji Akamichi, heir to the Akamichi clan, was last seen hanging out with Naruto Uzumaki, village pariah, orphan, and the Kyuubi container. It was then child's play to note that the three boys would be together if they were last seen that way since a Nara could not leave a puzzle such as Naruto alone once they see how interesting a puzzle truly was. Hiruzen just hoped that Yoshino hadn't persuaded him to think that the Kyuubi was nothing more than some evil being that could overpower any and everything that it was sealed in and control its host from the inside. That would mean that Naruto would have lost two very good friends at his sides, and he was not going to forgive the women if that was the case.

 

unfortunately, by the time Hiruzen had gotten the report that Naruto's apartment building was on fire, he knew well enough that the boys were in too much danger to be alright and rushed over there as soon as possible. Forgoing his usual speech for the festival in order to see about saving the boys. It's not like missing one speech was going to do any harm, especially if it was found out that he was trying to save the lives of children. How could a kage be faulted for that? So he made it to the building and helped the ANBU put out the fire in no time flat, good thing too because the place was a blaze of heat that looked like hell rose up and had placed the building under arrest. Once the fire was out, he gave orders to look for Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji, but the ANBU came up empty in finding the boys alive and there were no bodies to be found. If there was any evidence to say that the boys had been there, it was all burned away and Hiruzen made sure to tell Ibiki to go simply cray with the interrogation of the people that dared to start the fire in the first place. He would make them into examples if he had to. Later that night, or more accurately, earlier that morning, he finally made it back to his office and looked through his crystal ball to see if he could find the boys. Luckily for him, he did, he was able to witness the moment when Naruto led Shikamaru and Chouji out of an old shed, thinking that they had fled there after the fire had started. They must have gotten their clothes from that shed as well because Hiruzen knew from their parents that the clothes he saw them wear were not what they were last seen in. 

 

Nevertheless, the boy's were safe and seemed to be relatively unharmed from what he could see. He assumed that Shikamaru had slept wrong because he seemed to have a bit of a limp, as did Naruto. Chouji seemed alright though, to him at least. He really did hope that the three boys stayed friends after this, Naruto needed someone in his corner that he could rely on and let his guard down around. Even though Naruto knew that he cared for him, he also knew that the boy was not fully trusting of anyone and this only broke the old man's heart to know that he was only slightly trusted by the blond. However, since it seems that the boys were all alright, Hiruzen thought that he might do the honors of picking up all three of them from school today. Maybe even treat them all to something to eat, no doubt that they all must have been starving by now. Who knows, Naruto might even find some money laying about hat could help him find a new place to live. With that in mind, Hiruzen set out to tell the parents of the two missing boys that they were alright and he would bring them home personally after school and some questioning to make sure they were truly alright.

* * *

 

 

Naruto was starving, not only that, but Shikamaru and Chouji were hungry as well. They hadn't had anything to eat since yesterday evening during lunch and then sharing some of Chouji's chips afterward before the fire thing started. However, while they were held captive at the bar, one of the men that was there found and took away the rest of Chouji's chips and whatever little money that both boys had on them. They had no lunch, nothing to get food with, and they were none too comfortable with asking others about helping them out with their situation because then that would lead to questions on why they were without food or money to buy it. So when the final bell had rung, Chouji could barely keep his head up, Shikamaru felt like throwing up from the fact that his stomach was eating itself, and Naruto was unable to keep his eyes open for more than a few minutes at a time. They were the last ones to leave the class, they had no idea what they wanted to do, but they all agreed that having food and then a nice hot bath would be the top of their list, then maybe a nice long nap in bed. But then they remembered that Naruto didn't have any of that anymore, no food, no money, no bed, no home. Naruto was in every sense of the word, homeless. Shikamaru was about to suggest that they all go to Chouji's house for food and rest when Naruto tripped over a bag that seemed to be randomly laying there. 

 

Naruto had been in a fog from hunger, other than the little scraps of food he was able to afford yesterday and then some of Chouji's chips, Naruto hadn't had anything solid to eat in a week. Three sticks of dongos, a cup of tea, and some chips do not make a meal. So when he tripped over the bag at his feet, he was brought back down to a very hard and grassy reality. It took him a few moments to remember how to work his limbs again before getting help from Shikamaru and Chouji. Now they were looking into the bag of money and he was startled, there was a sizable amount of money just lying there at his feet in this bag. Not knowing what else to do, he said the first thing that came to his mind, "holy shit!" Normally he would ask if someone had left this bag of money here somehow, but because of his current living situation, he was against that thought right away, it barely had time to register in his mind before he stomped it down. 

 

"Hello Naruto, Shikamaru, Chouji," the three said boys jumped and looked at their Hokage who was smiling warmly at them. "Would you three care to join me for some food? We could have some ramen or maybe some barbeque if you would like."

 

The three looked at each other for a second, a smile on their faces, "Ramen!" They all shouted happily since it was the food that they would have less time to wait for. Hiruzen chuckled at their antics and led them to Ichiraku's stand, he watched as all three, even Shikamaru, ate their weight in ramen, which put Hiruzen's wallet on a harsh diet quickly. But he was happy to help, "thanks for the food!" They thanked him when they were done.

 

"Not a problem," he smiled at them as they left the stand, they seemed to be filled with a new glow of energy as they walked with the old man. "So, I hear that you two didn't go to the festival last night," he started as they made their way through the village, "care to explain why that was?" Shikamaru didn't want to talk about that night, so he looked ahead of them with a blank look. Chouji looked anywhere but up at the Hokage, and Naruto was looking down. Hiruzen frown at their behavior and wondered what he had missed, did something happen to them after the fire?

 

Naruto heaved a sigh, "can we take a bath?" He suddenly asked them, "our clothes got burned in a fire last night, so we had to borrow these from a shed behind a bar." He lied effortlessly to his kage like he's done all the times before after his birthday.

 

Shikamaru looked at Naruto for a minute, he could sense that they were in the same both about talking about the night before, "a bath would be nice after all that food."

 

Chouji agreed with them with a nod of his head, Naruto even offered to pay for it with some of the money that he found earlier. However, Hirusen assured him that that was not necessary since one of the perks of being a kage was that he got his very own privet bathing area in the bathhouse. They entered and went back to the privet bathing area for important people, Hiruzen gave the boys some time to talk among themselves as they enjoyed the bath. He also made sure to have someone go out and by them some new clothes while they bathed, he didn't want them leaving in the same dirty clothes that they came in, he had a feeling that they had belonged to someone else some time ago because the materials were worn.

 

"What are we going to do now?" Chouji asked as they got washed up before getting into the bath.

 

"Should we tell him about what happened last night?" Shikamaru asked, because for once in his life, he had no idea what he should do. Neither or Chouji knew what to do after what they just been through, but sticking to Naruto felt like the best thing to do, and the safest.

 

"Easy, we're going to tell him about the fire, that's it," Naruto said as he watched the rest of his wounds and bruises heal. He felt like a monster, Chouji and Shikamaru still had bruises, but they were just about gone, maybe the villagers were right about him.

 

Shikamaru caught the look in Naruto's eye, "stop it, don't think like that," Naruto looked at him questioningly. "You're not a monster, okay, so you heal a little faster than others, that's cool, and besides it would come in handy, so you're not a monster just because of that."

 

Chouji nodded with a smiled at Naruto, "yeah, if you were a monster, then you probably would have left us in the fire and got out of there yourself. But you didn't, so you're not a monster, you're our friends, and we'll always be yours, right, Shikamaru?"

 

"Right," Shikamaru answered.

 

And that is what they did, Shikamaru, Naruto, and Chouji all told the Sandime what happened during the fire and how they got there and out of it They left out the part about when they were taken to the bar, where Chouji was beaten up, Shikamaru was raped, and Naruto was both raped and beaten, they didn't want to talk about that. Not after it had happened. Naruto told them not to tell their parents or friends about the event either until they are sure that they are ready to talk about it, like a team. Shikamaru and Chouji agreed, feeling as though that they would get an explanation on why they couldn't at least hint that something else had happened to the Sandime because, well, it the Hokage's job to protect them, but Naruto made them promise and they promised on their clan names they wouldn't tell a soul. Later on, after they got out of the bath with an now somewhat informed Hokage, they dressed in their new clothes and left for their own homes. Only, Naruto broke away from them telling the Sandime that he already had a place to stay for the night and his two friends backed him up saying that they saw friends tell him he could stay with them. It was another lie, yes, but at least now he could find a new place to stay that was within his price range, and with the loud of many that he now owned, whether it was meant for him or not, it would in handy.

* * *

 

 

After Naruto made it back to the red light district, he looked around for somewhere to stay. A nice place, by whoring standers, that he could call a new home. He was in luck when the first place he checked out was a little more on the calm side of the district, it was like Konoha proper, but with stripers and drug dealers. He found the owner of the place and asked her how much for a room, he was stunned when she said that she would give him the whole complex for about 400,000 ryo since she was leaving the village anyways. 

 

"Yep, I and my old bones can't seem to get any more business going in any of the rooms. My girls have just about grown up and left me alone to do kami knows what in some other village." The owner, Hime, a stage name that she picked out after her parents had left her on her own when she was just fourteen, explained to him why she was leaving and all the ins and outs of owning a building such as hers. She told him that she was leaving at the end of the day and still had a couple of hours to spare and showed him how to fill out rent papers and set prices, higher and lower depending on how many people are living there against the standers she's set. She also told him some of her tricks so that he could earn a little extra money on the side, it was both a sex ed lesson and a lesson on how to find a job. As it turned out, Hime was one of the people that actually respected Naruto for standing up to all the people in the village for being different, since her family wasn't originally from this village, then she didn't see fit to judge him. After a long while of talking and giving him a list of all the places that he could possibly work at under disguise, she finished packing up her things and the village along with the money that Naruto gave her. 

 

Naruto waved her goodbye before heading back to the apartment building that he now owned. He was happy with his purchase, The place wasn't as run down as his last place and he was sure that with a little elbow grease, he could repair the building good as new. The rooms weren't as tiny as his last apartment either, in fact, the building was still fairly new to the area, having been built only seven years before. The walls were made of sturdy brick, the floors had a nice finish, the walls seemed to be hard enough so that no one could really punch through them without hurting themselves in the process. It was perfect! Since he was the owner, he got the biggest apartment out of the whole building, it was a semi-large three and a half bedroom, the half room was mostly meant for storage anyways. The other three rooms were bedrooms that he could change however he wished, Hime had also left him with a mattress that she had only used for sleeping on, which was was grateful for. All other furniture was taken with the previous owner or sold so that she could get a start on her journey. For a moment, Naruto wondered what it would be like if he was to also leave the village and never come back with the money that he was gifted with by the mystery person. He would travel the world and never look back, making money however he could, but would be knowing that the people around him didn't hate him because of something he had no idea about. But then he thought about Shikamaru and Chouji and how they would feel if their friend that they just went through a dark time with, how they would feel if they found out that he had left on his own without some much of a warning. Naruto sighed, he was too tired to think about such things right now and just went to bed. He had already eaten his belly full and had a lot to think about, the only that he found would run out soon, and he was sure that if he took up Hime's offer on the places she listed, he would need to learn how to do the henge properly so he could work. He would need to keep up his appearance in school, maybe he would start looking for a second job that he can do before the academy, he knew that the first job on the list was in very desperate need of part-time workers. He would check there first. With that last thought, he let sleep take him.

* * *

The next day, Naruto got up and stretched, he looked around at his surroundings and was happy to remember that he was lucky to have found this place so soon. No sleeping in the ally for him anymore, at least he hoped not. He would have to do his bed to make sure that he wasn't seen entering or exiting this building in a way that would suggest that he lived here, or else he might have to kiss this place goodbye sooner than he wanted to. Remembering his thoughts from last night, he got up and checked the shower real quick to see the water situation, thankfully, it wasn't turned off. He didn't take a show just yet, he wanted to make sure that he could do the henge first and stood in front of a full-length mirror that came with the apartment and set about doing the henge. It was a good thing that the henge was the easiest academy jutsu that he could learn and found it to be the best, it was so useful, he would have to tell Shika and Chouji about it when he saw them at school later. He had pictured someone in his mind that he thought would be the female version of himself. In the mirror now stood a female Naruto with two long, blond ponytail, a C-cup rack, and curves for days, he thought it was a good start, but wanted to play with the look a little, so he changed the hair and eye color, not the henge had long wavy red hair and dark green eyes. He turned around in the mirror to get a good view on all sides, he ran a hand over himself to see how he felt in the henge and after a minute, he nodded. He dubbed this as his main henge to go to an from the building. Naruto dropped the henge and took a show, the water was perfectly warm, instead of cold like he was used to, so he might have stayed in the show for a few minutes longer to bask in the low of warm water.

 

He got out and put on his clothes from yesterday since he had no other, and picked up the bag of money. He picked up the henge again, this time dressing it in a formal kimono and of light green and dark blue, before leaving the apartment. He made his way out of the red light district and into town, he was sure that he had a little while before he had to get to school, so he took his time and bought something for his breakfast and then lunch. He also bought something for Shika and Chouji too as a thank you for being there and not blowing up after the whole ordeal. When he was done, he made his way to school, making sure that no one was watching before dropping the henge. He found the way to class just in time before his name was call and sat in the back the room, he was a little surprised to find Shikamaru and Chouji sitting in the same back seat that they had been sitting in yesterday. They now had a few band-aids on their person where their bruises still head true, Naruto still felt a little bad about not having bruises like his friends did, but show off the feeling and stat with them. When he took his seat next to them, they nodded and smiled their greeting before remaining silent all throughout the rest of the class period.

 

At lunch, Naruto gave them the stuff he bought for them as a thank you as they sat alone on the roof away from everyone's view. "You don't need to thank us, Naruto, I told you, we're friends, troublesome blond."

 

Naruto smiled, "but I want to, no one would stick with me, and you guys stuck around and got beat up, all because of me." He frowned, "it was my fault that you guys are all beat up and stuff, so this is the least that I can do, y'know?"

 

Shikamaru and Chouji shared a looked, "well it wasn't your fault, it was those villagers that did those things to us and burned down your home. I hope that they get what's coming to them," Shikamaru said as he dug into his lunch, Xhouji already halfway through with his own. 

 

Naruto smiled at them and went back to eating his own food. When they were all done and were just laying on on the roof, Naruto asked, "so what happened when you guys got home?"

 

"Well, my parents were too happy that I didn't come home to get ready for the festival, especially my mom. The troublesome woman," Shikamaru grumbled.

 

**Flashback**

 

_The Sandime had just knocked on the door of the Nara compound's main house and was greeted by a worried and sobbing mother. He handed over Shikamaru before bidding the family farewell. Once the door was closed, however, Yoshino rounded on her son, "where have you been, huh? Didn't I tell you not to hang around that demon boy!" Yoshino yelled at the startled ten-year-old, a hard grip on his wrist that made him wince, she then noticed the bruises on him and gasped before her eyes became hard. "Who gave you these bruises, was it him?" She asked, but Shikamaru looked away from her gaze, "ANSWER ME!"_

 

_"NO! It wasn't Naruto, it wasn't Chouji either, it was the villagers!" Shikamaru finally said over her yelling._

 

_"What villagers, what are you talking about Shikamaru," Yoshino asked, giving her son a little shake on the shoulder with her other hand, still not letting go of his wrist._

 

_"It was the people of this village, they came to his house and then they burned it down! If it wasn't for him, then I and Chouji would have died in that fire!" Shikamaru said, explaining how him and Chouji had gone to find Naruto and then was met with the reality that he wasn't liked very well in the village, he didn't tell her about how they we then captured and tortured, because after he finished telling her about the fire, she had a little less worried look about her. This confused him since he thought that she would have been even more worried about him and his friends when she heard that they were caught in a fire, but she wasn't. This led him to believe that she was apart of the village that hated Naruto for seemingly no reason what so ever, he suddenly felt sick and didn't want to be near her anymore. What she said next put him on edge._

 

_"Well, it seems that the demon didn't want you and Chouji to be let go so easily. Well, as long as your alive, that's fine I supposed, but next time stay away from him so you won't be in so much danger. You are a clan heir and you can not afford to be distracted by such a boy in the first place," Yoshino said cooly as she started pulling him along to the bathroom. She entered and sat him down so she could tend to his wounds, "that boy is bad new, he's no good in the way of being a was of space. You should just forget about him and make friends with the other kids in your class," she smiled at him, "maybe you'll even have a girlfriend then give me some grandchildren, I hear that the Hyuuga heiress is pretty cute. Maybe in a few years, she'll be quite the looker, ne, Shika-chan?"_

 

_Shikamaru looked into his mother's eyes and found that she was being serious about this, she was in no way concerned that he had almost died in a fire with his friends. Why? Why wasn't she concerned, didn't she love him anymore or something? Is it because he was hanging out with Naruto like she told him not to? What was the reason for her behavior? Shikamaru had so many questions floating around in his head that he was just about overflowing with more questions. At dinner that night, Shikamaru was still stuck in his head when his father called out to him._

 

_"Oi, Shikamaru, your mother tells me that you're thinking about going after Hinata Hyuuga," Shikaku stated across Shikamaru. He chuckled when his son looked up at him startled, "I think it's a fair choice, she's not bad looking, and she's fairly smart too, she would make a good wife for you someday."_

 

_Shikamaru stared at his dad a long while, he couldn't really see. It was like the two of them were getting farther and farther away from his vision the more he looked at them. "What about Naruto." He found his mouth saying, unaware that he was speaking at all, he thought it was in his head, but when his parents stopped talking and joking around, he knew he said it out loud._

 

_"What about Naruto?" Shikaku asked._

 

_They were both looking at him now, Yoshino seemed to be a little mad that he would bring him up, while Shikaku was a blank slate. "I was just wondering, what about Naruto? Why can't I hang out with him? He's done nothing more than pulling a few pranks, why don't you guys like him?"_

 

_"Hm," Shikamaru said as he returned to his dinner, "Naruto is a fine boy, but I don't think a lot of people understand him very well. But that also makes him troublesome, a troublesome kid that always gets himself in trouble with others isn't the greatest material for friends, but I guess you can hang out with him as long as you don't follow in his footsteps. Just not all the time, you have school to focus on if you want to be a ninja like your dear old dad," Shikaku sent a smile at his son._

 

_Shikamaru wasn't smiling back, he felt sick, sicker than before. "I don't feel so well," he said getting up from the table, "I'm going to bed."_

 

_Yoshino looked from her son to his plate, "but you haven't touched your food," she said looked at him worriedly._

 

_"I'm not hungry," he left the room then,_

 

_"Damn it Shikaku, why'd you have to go and tell him that, now he'll try even less when he's in school because **it,** " Yoshino hissed to her husband._

 

_"Calm down Yoshino, as long as Shikamaru can find a way to fulfill his role as heir and carry on the line, then he can do whatever he wants. He's smart enough to figure out what Naruto is, so there's no need to put words in his mouth about it," Shikaku said lazily._

 

_Yoshino seethed in anger at her husband, "fine, but if that demon brings him down, then that's on your head," and just like that the continued dinner. They didn't know that Shikamaru had just heard everything that they had said, not knowing that he planned on moving out of the compound for a while because of it. They didn't know that he was planning on staying with Naruto at his place until he could find the will to confront them for all that he had heard, they didn't know. And that was fine with him._

 

**Flashback Kai**

 

Shikamaru sighed as he remembered, he was too fresh in his mind to forget, he sat up on the roof looking at his hands in his lap. He had packed up his stuff late that night and brought his stuff to school with him, his backpack henged into what looked like a half-empty book bag. It was just sitting under his desk just waiting for him to come take it, "Hey Naruto," Shikamaru started, interrupting Chouji's story about how he had found the ultimate chip flavor this morning on his way to school.

 

"Yeah, Shikamaru? What is it?" He asked.

 

"Did you find a place to stay at yet?" Shikamaru asked, not looking at the blond and feeling very stupid for his rushed decision the night before.

 

"Yeah, actually, I have, you're looking at a new owner of an apartment building on the south side of the red light district," Naruto stated proudly with a bright smile.

 

Shikamaru and Chouji were in awe at the blond's luck, "what are the odds of you getting a place the day after your place burns down?" Chouji asked.

 

Naruto shrugged, "do you mind if I stay with you for a while?" Shikamaru asked suddenly, making his two friends star at him. He realized that he would need to explain himself, so he told them what happened last night at the dinner table and when he told his mom about the fire. They were shocked just like him when they heard her answer, "so I felt like I couldn't stay there any longer and just decided to pack up my stuff and leave. I made sure to leave before they got up so that they wouldn't know that I was moving out, I even left a note on my dresser saying that I was over at Chouji's house and might stay there for a while."

 

The two boys stared at Shikamaru for a moment before Chouji's shoulder's slumped, "I wish we could have talked last night because I was feeling the same way." Naruto and Shikamaru looked at him in surprise, "yeah, my parents were saying the same thing, at first I couldn't believe that my mom would talk like that about anybody. But at least she wasn't cussing half as much as my dad when I asked him what he thought about Naruto, I can't even repeat any of the words he said, I didn't even think that he would ever _say_ have the things he did." He sighed, "so while they were going on and on about you to each other, I snuck away from the table and packed up all my stuff that I could get my hands on left the house before they knew I was away from the table, I just...I just couldn't stay in that house one more minute."

 

Naruto looked at them and thought for a moment, "since I have the building to myself, I can probably make you guys co-owners or something, the lady that sold it to me showed me how. I know just about everything about the building, I think that if we work together, we could even set it up all nice and stuff so that other people would want to live too. That way we could have money to buy things and other stuff like that," a blinding smile came on to Naruto's face, he turned to his friends, "we could so make a lot of money doing this! If you guys move in with me, we could get the building running even faster and then have people sign up for apartments in no time!"

 

Naruto's happiness was contagious and it spread to Shikamaru and Chouji instantly, they spent the rest of lunch talking about what they could do with the building. They even talked about how they would pay for the things that they would need to get started. That was when Naruto took out the list of possible jobs that they could work at if they used the henge jutsu. He even showed them his own and they were amazed, Naruto soon found out that his henge was able to become more real than any other henge out there, it was a surprise, and he started thinking about how he might help Shikamaru and Chouji make their henges real as well so they could lower the chances of getting caught. When he finally remembered something that he had heard Iruka sensei say one in class, something about sharing chakra or something like that to help a teammate, but for now, he could definitely use that to help his friends with the henge. However, he didn't get a chance to test out the theory when the lunch bell rang and they had to go back inside, even though he didn't want to give up on it yet, he followed Chouji and Shikamaru and told them what he was thinking with the Chakra sharing thing. They thought that it was an interesting thought, but it would have to wait until after school to actually see if they could actually do what they were thinking. Class passed by rather swiftly from there and then they left class but stopped before they got to the front door.

 

"Damn, I think our dad's found out that we lied to them about where we were staying," Shikamaru whispered as he peeked at his dad talking to Chouji's dad in the front yard of the school.

 

"Do you think we should just stay in here until they leave?" Chouji asked, hoping that it would work, but he knew it wouldn't.

 

"No, they won't buy it, they're coming this way," Shikamaru said as he watched their dad's start to walk over to the front doors after looking around the front yard.

 

"Guys over here," Naruto said as he ran down the hall to the other end, leading them to the back entrance of the school. He came out the back and looked around, there wasn't anyone there to see which way they went, that was good. Naruto transformed into his main henge and turned to them, "henge into someone random, we'll make it look like I'm a mother who just picked up her kids." He said and watched Shikamaru transform into a boy with light brown short hair and brown eyes in civilian clothing, while Chouji transformed into a nondescript civilian boy with dark hair and yes. Naruto took both of their hands and doubled back around the school with them, walking as calmly as they could by the windows, pretending to talk about random stuff as they went. They kept up the henge until they were almost to the red light district, Naruto wanted to make sure that they weren't found out too soon. When they made it to Naruto's new apartment building, he let them in and was stopped by a random civilian person.

 

"Excuse, do you know where Hime-san is? I need to speak to her," the man said.

 

"Oh, Hime-san let yesterday, I'm the owner of this building," Naruto said, his henged voice sounding like wind chimes in the wind as he spoke. 

 

The man smiled, "well, it's nice to meet landlady-san, I was coming here to ask Hime-san for a place to stay. If you don't mind, I just lost my home the night before while I was out of the village and found out just this evening about," he explained as Naruto let him into the office.

 

Naruto saw Shikamaru and Chouji hiding in one of the other rooms and subtly told them to henge into someone that looked sort of like his henge just in case they were caught. Even though Naruto didn't pay much attention in class, he still knew enough to stay in the program. Naruto also dubbed this henge as Luna because he liked the way the moon looked at night. "Well, that will be all, your rent will be 11,000 ryo a month and your apartment will be 207," he said cheerfully after the man, who he found out was named Shinto, signed the formes and handed her the first month's rent.

 

When the man left, Naruto closed the door and dropped his henge, "okay guys, we should talk about some way to earn extra money other than just this apartment building just in case," he said seriously. They were sitting in a circle as they talked, "I think we should probably each get a job and also set aside some time for training and studying."

 

"What a drag, we are the dead last, couldn't we just stay like that?" Shikamaru asked.

 

"We could, but I think that it might work in our favor to get more stable income after we leave the academy," Naruto stated. "I was thinking about it on my way to school, sure we could get money from the people that rent a place here, but we could do so much better than just that, y'know? Like for example, we would need to fix stuff in this place when it breaks and that would cost money, anything taken from the people paying to live here should go back into the building when it's needed. Having a part-time job after school would give us money to buy weapons, food, and anything else that we would need to live out here on our own."

 

"Wow Naruto, you know your fair share of this stuff, don't you? How long have you been living on your own?" Chouji asked curiously.

 

Naruto shrugged, "since I was like four or five I think." Chouji felt bad for asking, but Naruto shook it off, "anyways if you haven't noticed, we're going to need a bit more than just 50,000 ryo a month to help fix up this place. I checked the water this morning and it seems to be working fine enough, but I haven't checked anything else."

 

Shikamaru nodded and dug in his bag to get paper and pencil, "so let's list all the things that we'll need to do and check. First, we can already cross of water, what about the lights?" Naruto got up and checked them, they took a few seconds to come on and blinked every down and then, "okay, so we'll need to check the electricity a little more to get a better idea of how well it works throughout the building. Next, what about..." and they went through the apartment to see what was and wasn't working,  by the end they summed up that the plumbing would need some work and the electricity was on the frits, the window was a fire hazard because it was stuck. Other than that, Naruto's apartment was in working order, so they went out and checked the other apartments in the building to see if they were working the same way, they more or less were and this gave Shikamaru an estimate of what was going on with the building. When Luna got to Shinto's apartment, 'she' introduced Shikamaru's and Chouji's henge as her nieces Hitomi (Chouji) and Lin (Shikamaru) as they checked his apartment for any falts. By the time they were done, it was just about dinner time, so they went into town, still henged, making a list of things that they would need right away. They ate dinner at Ichiraku's before leaving and going to pick up furniture. Shikamaru and Chouji would need a bed each for the night, and Naruto wanted to trade in the mattress for an actual bed, they had more than enough for three beds, a kitchen table with chairs, a couch, and some groceries. When they were done with all the shopping and everything was delivered to Naruto's apartment, they sat down at their new table and totaled up the remaining money and came to the conclusion that they would need a job after all. They still have enough money to last them to the end of next month, but that money would run out soon enough and there were three of them, plus Chouji's bloodline meant that he needed to eat more than the other two so a job was required, maybe two if they wanted to splurge every now and then.

 

They put away the food and picked a room for themselves since Naruto was the one to by the building, they gave him the master bedroom. When their things were all set up, Naruto sat them down on the ground and proceded to see about the chakra sharing theory that he had earlier that day. Since they had already unlocked their chakra in the academy, it was easy enough to find it within themselves, but they had no idea how to share it between themselves because Iruka's lesson that day only covered the basic of basics. "Oh man, how are we supposed to do this if we don't know how?!" Naruto moaned in desperation.

 

"Hm, maybe if we just feel it out it might work," Shikamaru said, they had been at it almost an hour with no result to speak of.

 

"Feel it out, really Shika, that's the best you got?" Naruto asked.

 

Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders, "it's a start, anyway, we should hurry this up so we can start job hunting before it get's dark out and places get busy."

 

"Whatever," was Naruto's responce, Chouji giggled at his friend's antics as they got serious again. They closed their eyes and felt for their chakra again when the got a feel for it, they focused on it and brought it closer to the surface. They took each other's hands and started focusing on each other's chakra while also focusing on their own. Unbeknownst to them, there was a certain fox that was watching them closely from within his seal, with a flick of his tail, he started placing things in motion that could not be reversed and helped the boys with their little experiment. He trickled some of his chakra from the seal and into the awaiting chakra systems of the two boys next to his host. Before either boy knew anything, a burning sensation went through all three of their veins filtered into they systems, settling in and blending with the two other chakra signatures in the room. Also, unbeknownst to the fox, since there was still traces of DNA left in two of boy's body from the night of the festival, he had unknowingly sealed their fate. 

 

When the pain stopped, Chouji cracked one of his eyes open and looked at the other two boys on the floor, "d-did it work?" He asked, trying to ignore the throbbing he felt all over his body.

 

Shikamaru groaned, "it better have, because I am not doing that again," he said as he rubbed his head.

 

Naruto shook himself from the slight dizziness that he was feeling and looked out out the window, the sun was already going down and the stars were starting to appear in the sky. He groaned as he got up from the ground, "come on, we still need jobs to keep ourselves float out here," he said getting to his feet and already apply the henge.

 

"Where should we start first?" Chouji asked as he got up from the ground, followed Shikamaru.

 

Naruto looked around until he found where the list had been placed on the table and looked it over, next to the names of the places were sidenotes. The first one said it was a part-time thing that would pay well if it was a pretty girl asking for the job. Naruto took that into consideration before looking at himself and then his friends, "Shika, transform into the hottest girl you can think of, you too Chouji." They shrugged their shoulders and both transformed into girls that would typically be seen in dirty magazines, Naruto decided to question them on this later as he tested to see if they had managed to make the henge sold like his or not. They had, Naruto almost thought that it wasn't going to work so easily but took this as a turn for the better and told them to change some of their features so that no one would recognize them as the girls from whichever adult magazines they had gotten the images from. Shikamaru was now a hot model with a B-cup sized chest and large hips, a small waist and smooth pale skin, dark blond hair that was almost a golden brown color and dark gray eyes. Chouji's henge was just as curvy, if not more, with a D-cup chest, light green eyes, light brown hair and tanned skin with a beauty mark just under the left corner of his mouth. Nodding his head in approval, Naruto decided to change his henge a bit to have a little more curve before all three of them exited the apartment to look for work, both Shikamaru and Chouji was becoming more and more self-aware of the fact that their henge was now a real one since their chest seemed to bounce every few steps they took.

 

"Hello, bartender-san, we were wondering if you have any open positions in your establishment?" Naruto/Luna asked politely when caught sight of him getting ready to open his doors. The bartender looked at them for a long moment, taking in all of their figures, Shikamaru was looking away from the man's stair because it made him feel naked, while Chouji was trying not to feel like a piece of meat in the man's eyes, and Naruto only blushed lightly the longer the bar owner stared at them. It felt almost as if he could see right through them.

 

"Alright, you three can have the job, follow me and you can get your uniforms, we open in an hour so you'll have just that long to get changed." The man said as he walked out from behind the bar and into the back, motioning them to follow along, "here are your uniforms, you can change down the hall, you'll be waitresses, until you want to make a little extra money and we're short staffed, then you'll be one of the dancers. It pays a little higher than the waitress position, that's only because it includes tips and because I know that some of the customers can get a little...rowdy at times," He said it as if it happened often which worried the boys a little, "if any of the customers order the house special, then let me know and I'll have one of the girls know so they can preform it, however, it we're short staffed when that happens, then one or two of you will have to fill in, don't worry, I've stated in the rules that they can't take advantage, and will be kicked out if they try anything funny. Any questions?"

 

Chouji hesitantly raised his hand, "w-w-what's the house special?"

 

"It's a lap dance with up to about two or three girls in a privet room, they pay extra for drinks," the owner informed. He sighed, "also, just in case it happens to one of you while you still know here since this place is where it is, there will be a chance of sex happening during those specials, which they would have to pay three times as much. Although it doesn't happen too often, it still may happen," he checked his watch, okay that's all we have time for, go get dressed, we're very low on staff tonight, so you'll have to start tonight. Unless there's somewhere you all have to be right now, then you can start tomorrow night around this time." 

 

"Thank you very much, sir, we will get started right away," Luna said with a bow and followed Shikamaru and Chouji down the hall to get changed.

* * *

 

**1 month later**

 

It has been a few weeks since Naruto, Chouji, and Shikamaru had started working at the bar which they found out was named 'Ichigo and Co'. It wasn't so bad, not really, they worked from about five til midnight and then went home, thankfully they hadn't had to fill in for any 'house specials' or anything of the sort. They did have to stand in for one of the dancers halfway once, but that was only for thirty minutes before they were replaced with the original dancer that was supposed to be up there. Apparently, she was running late from her other job because school let out late and her other boss wanted her to make up the time. From then on, they set a routine, they would get up at about five and train for two hours, then study for another two hours, before rushing off to school for nine. During lunch, they would either train or study while they eat, and then train a little if they still had the time before going back to class. After school, they had about two hours to kill to either study or train or relax before heading off to work. Things were going well for them before the toilets stopped working the right way, this forced them to get a second job to help pay for the toilet repairs. So after sacrificing that free two hours they had before work to make deliveries for two hours for a new up and coming sweets shop. However, they used this new job for speed and strength training, so it wasn't much of a loss. Once they managed to pay off the toilet repairs, they kept the job just in case anything else came up that required extra money from them, they would have it. As it stood, they were doing pretty well for themselves...that is until Naruto and Shikamaru started throwing up in the morning.

 

"Are you sure you guys are okay? We should probably take you to the hospital to make sure," Chouji said worriedly as he eyed his friends on their way to school. 

 

"What? Are you crazy Chouji, hospitals are expensive, I'm not going to the hospitals just because I caught a little stomach bug, we'll be fine," Naruto said, even though he looked a little pale. 

 

"Troublesome, we might as well talk it easy though, we've been working ourselves pretty hard lately though." Shikamaru stated with a yawn, "if anything, it's probably just the stress of it or something, we just need to let our bodies get used to it, that's all. Besides, that last payment for toilet really drained us and we still haven't looked at what's making the bathtub hold the water in when it's not supposed to. Man, why does owning a building have to be such a drag?" He pouted, sounded kinda depressed about the whole thing.

 

"Well okay, but I still think that we might have to call in sick for you two from the Takima's delivery service and Ichigo and Co. You can't be around food and be sick, what if you threw up in one of the orders! Then what would we do?" Chouji stated, sounding very much like a small chibi version of Iruka sensei when he's in mother hen mode.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Cho, we'll be fine, how about this, if you don't look right as rain by lunch, then we'll go home and rest until it's time to go to work? Is that alright with you?"

 

Chouji grumbled, "I guess, but I still think we should call in sick."

 

"Call in sick for what? We can't do that or we'd be down to one job again, and even though Takima's pays well enough, we have a whole building to look after. We still only have one tenant, plus we'll be fired from Ichigo's if we do, so we cant really afford not to go," Shikamaru argued. 

 

Chouji rolled his eyes, "yeah, yeah, whatever...I still don't like how he keeps asking if my henge would consider doing up on the pole for full time." They were in their henge because they were on their way to school, over the past month, they had found that the henge was not only solid, but it distributes their original wait to make it so. Since Chouji had the most mass, his henge was better suited for wider hips, chest, and thighs, which was why the owner thought he would do well on the pole. There was more to shake, and Chouji wasn't happy about that. Naruto and Shikamaru chuckled at their friend's misfortune as they neared the academy, they quickly dropped the henge in an ally before rushing inside when the school yeard cleared. It was only about two hours into class when Naruto first started to feel nauseous, Shikamaru following him soon after. Naruto felt like the room was spinning and Shikamaru could only describe his feelings as that of being on a boat while standing still. Iruka was looking up at the two boys with worry, Naruto was sitting next to one of the open windows and Shikamaru had the aisle seat, Chouji was smart to insist on the middle seat because as soon as another minute when by, both said hello to their breakfast. And some of last night's dinner along with it. The class was torn away from the chunin's lecture at the sound, sight, and smell of vomit come from not one, but two boys in the back of the room. Chouji sighed, he didn't want to believe he had been right that morning about them being sick, but the proof was right there in front of him, so he could not ignore it. 

 

"Mizuki-san, watch the class please, I'm taking the boy's to the nurse," Iruka stated as he walked up the stairs to stand next to the row with the sick boys. Naruto had just stuck his head back inside after emptying the contents of his stomach and Shikamaru was now leaning back in his chair, looking like he was done with the world. Iruka avoids stepping in vomit as he touched Shikamaru on the shoulder gently, "come on, let's go to the nurse," he said, easing Shikamaru out of his seat. He motioned for Chouji to help Naruto while he helped Shikamaru, they left the class and started their walk, while they were walking, the three boys had a small whispered conversation.

 

"I told you, we're calling it off," Chouji whispered to the two of them.

 

"Let's just see what the nurse says, at least this visit won't cost us anything afterward," Naruto whispered back to him. Thus ending their small conversation. When they got to the nurse's office, she checked the two boys over, and asked Chouji if he felt sick at all since he was always seen with them, Chouji didn't feel any different other than how he always feels.

 

"Well, the only thing wrong with these two seems to be their blood pressure, it's a little low," the nurse said looking at the results. 

 

"That's it?" Iruka asked.

 

"Yes, other than the blood pressure, they are right as rain, maybe they should go home?" She stated to the chunin teacher, ignoring Naruto completely after the check was over.

 

"Yes, I'll make sure to do that, thank you for your time," Iruka said and walked them back to class to get their things. Iruka then noticed Chouji taking up his things as well, "Chouji?Are you also not feeling well? Why didn't you say anything in the nurse's office?"

 

Chouji shook his head, "no, I just want to make sure that my friends are okay. Besides, I can help you carry one if the other one decides to faint on the way back home," he said as they walked out of the academy.

 

 

Iruka nodded and walked with the three boys, he couldn't help but notice that they seemed very close together. Almost as if they had been together for years. Ituka was shocked when they made their way into the red light district, he knew that Shikamaru and Chouji were clan heir's, but then that meant that Naruto lived here, it made sense, but why was he living here? The man blushed when he saw a hooker wink at him but in a suggestive manner, but he kept moving until they made their way to Naruto new building, in a burst of speed, the boys disappeared into one of the apartment buildings, saying a quick thank you and goodbye as they went. Iruka wasn't sure what to make of that, but since he'd done his job, he left the area, not wanting to be there longer than he thought needed. He didn't see when three beautiful women exited the apartment the boys ran into and enter the landlord office.

 

 

 

 


	2. A Honey-pot's lesson

"I can understand me, but what about you, Shika?" Naruto asked the genius of the group as they sat around the kitchen table. It has been a week since they came home that day with Iruka after Shikamaru and Naruto threw up in class. Within that time, they came up with a reason why they were getting sick and all of their symptoms pointed to one thing. At first, they didn't want to believe it. But as the days passed them by with nothing changing, Chouji managed to dare them into taking a test that would prove whether or not if it was true, so they took the test two days ago and it came back positive. Then they took another, and another just to be sure, it was at that point that they couldn't really trust the pregnancy test anymore because of the simple fact that they were boys. They ten. And they were male. Yes, they could only come up with two reasons, not even counting the statistics because in most cases, they're made up so people would buy more test. So they took the sure fire way out a scheduled a doctor's appointment. They wanted to be one hundred percent sure that they were what they thought they were.

 

**Flashback back**

 

_Earlier that day_

 

_Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji all sat in the doctor's office, nervously waiting for the doctor to call one of their names since they came in at the same time. They were in different henges today, they wanted to look like a random civilian woman so their main henges won't be caught. Naruto was brunette with light brown eyes, Shikamaru had dark brown hair and dark green eyes, and Chouji looked like a typical mom with dirty-blond hair. They sat in the waiting room waiting for either Naruto or Shikamaru to be called, Chouji was just there for support._

 

_"Ran-san? The doctor will see you now," a nurse called the name that Naruto put down and he followed the woman into the office._

 

_"Hello Ran-san, I hear you wanted to do a pregnancy test today?" Asked the doctor._ _Ran/Naruto nodded his head nervously, he still had a fear of hospitals and needles. The doctor saw the nervousness and moved to calm his patient, "there is no need to worry, it's just a simple test, alright. I'm going to take some blood and urine samples from you and give it to the lab, when everything checks out, we'll  give you a call no later than by the end of the day."_

 

_"O-okay," Ran said as 'she' let the doctor take the blood and the urine samples he would need._

 

_"Alright, you're all set, you can go about your day as you please and we'll call you later." The doctor said once they were done, Naruto left the office, just barely keep himself upright to walk out to the waiting room to meet his friends._

 

_They waited another minute after Naruto told them what the doctor told him, Shikamaru's name was called, "Raina-san, the doctor will see you know." The nurse called out and Shikamaru nearly jumped when Chouji gave him a supportive squeeze on his shoulder. He tried to calm down, but he was nervous, unlike Naruto, he was a clan heir, and if an heir got pregnant, they would have to marry the person that got them that way, or be disgraced and disowned from their clan. Shikamaru may not be able to handle that sort of thing right now, especially when all three of them almost got caught by his dad during their delivery job the other day._ _They went through the same thing that Naruto went through, but this time, when they were done, Shikamaru nearly fainted on his way out. The doctor was worried about him so he told the nurse to make sure that he had some way of getting home and made him sit in the waiting room until he felt better to walk on his own. After about an hour, Shikamaru was able to recover from his near fainting spell. The doctor, however lucky or unlucky it was, was able to find the henged the henged trio from leaving and checked Shikamaru to see if he was alright, he checked his blood pressure and found it to be a little low for his liking. While the doctor was checking Shikamaru's blood pressure, the nurse from before came up to him and handed him some papers, giving Naruto the feeling that they may be expecting a call sooner than they expected. The hospital finally lets them go after they gave them a phone number that they could call to give the result before the three went home._

 

_At the apartment, it was nearly two hours since they left the hospital and walked through the door when they got the call. Shikamaru and Naruto were pregnant. This time Shikamaru fainted and Naruto could barely remain to stand. The news all but taking the life from their very bodies as they heard the words._

 

**Flashback Kai**

 

**Now**

 

Naruto and Shikamaru had recovered from the initial shock and were now in disbelief. They were boys. They were ten. And they were pregnant.

 

"I can't believe this is happening, how is this possible?" Shikamaru asked himself as he held his head in his hands. He knew how it happened, but he didn't know  _how_ it was happening. 

 

"Maybe there was something in those needles that they put in your arms" Chouji stated, trying to be positive. In the Akamichi clan, you learn how to read a body when you're young so you can better understand and do the family jutsu when you were older. After taking a look at Shikamaru and Naruto, though, it was clear that they had been drugged with something because while they were walking to school after the...event, his friends were a little more out of it than he was. 

 

"I don't think anything they could have given us would have done this, Cho," Naruto said as he threw himself back into the chair. He felt tired, is this what shocking news does to a person? Drain their energy?

 

"...We can't keep them," Shikamaru finally said after the silence stretched too long.

 

Chouji and Naruto looked at him in surprise, "why not?" Naruto asked.

 

"Why? Because look at us! We're freaking ten! Ten! Not to mention that we're boys and we've just taken on a second job on top of the first one, we're going to school to become ninjas, and, oh yeah. Did I forget to mention that Chouji's and my parents are still trying to find out where we disappear off to after school?" Shikamaru listed, it hurt to think about all of this stuff when you're ten, "what are we even doing? We get raped and beaten, then we find out the impossible, what kind of messed up joke is this?"

 

Chouji looked at Shikamaru with pity, "Shika..." he started, not knowing how to continue on.

 

"I know Chouji, we can't get rid of it either," Shikamaru finished his friend's comment before he could. Suddenly tears pricked his eyes, one tear fell, then another, and another, and another until they just wouldn't stop falling. He rubbed furiously at his eyes, trying to get them to stop leaking his emotions, but he knew he couldn't stop the tears from falling now, everything that happened not even a full month ago started to crash down on top of him. Like when a ton of bricks come crashing down to the ground and hurting anyone who was unlucky enough to be caught under them, so he cried. Loud and hard, like he's ever cried before.

 

Chouji tired to comfort him, but it was no use, but at least he tired. Naruto was just sitting there, stuck in his own thoughts, he felt shame, shame that he let his best friends get hurt that night. Shame that he let them see what the villagers like to do to him on his birthday. So many painful memories of past birthdays swarmed into his mind, but he focusing on the most recent one. His tenth birthday, it was the hardest thing that he's ever been through, and the evidence just followed him from that not, in the forms of his crying friend, and the life that was now growing inside of them both. Naruto wasn't so dumb to know that he couldn't keep this child, he was too young, Shikamaru was too young, and they weren't prepared. Not by a long shot. They would have to either get rid of their unborn child or suffer the consequences of keeping them. But Naruto could never just take a life, not even if it was going to kill him in the end, as long as that life was pure, it at least deserved a chance, right?

 

In his seal, a certain fox was listening to all of the blond's thoughts and was watching the scene through his eyes. He almost felt bad for what he let happen. Almost. He sighed and let himself be known to the boy that contained him,  **"what if you could keep it?"** The fox whispered to the boy softly as if he was the boy's own thoughts.

 

Naruto looked up at his friends, he wasn't sure if he was the one thinking this. It felt like someone had spoken, but no one else was in the room, he played it off as nothing and looked down. He placed a hand on his small stomach where his unborn child would be, then he heard the voice again,  _"am I going crazy or what? I wish me and Shikamaru could keep our babies too, but we're way too young, what am I even thinking?"_

 

The fox lifted the animal equivalent to an eyebrow, a little surprised that the blond could differentiate between his thoughts and the fox's voice. The fox flicked his tails for a moment before taking a chance,  **"boy, do you want to keep your kit?"**

 

Naruto was startled by the voice is louder than before, he got up from his seat and looked around. Catching his friends attention, "Naruto? Are you alright?" Chouji asked as he looked at the now standing boy.

 

Naruto turned to them after his eyes swept over the apartment, "you guys didn't hear that just know?"

 

"Hear what?" Shikamaru sniffed as he started to calm down a bit, having his friend distract him from his overflowing emotions. He hated feeling weak like this.

 

"It was a voice, it was talking to me, didn't you hear it?" Naruto asked, feeling as though he was going crazy when his friends shook their heads.

 

 **"They can't hear me, boy, only you can,"** the fox said, feeling amused as he watched his container look for the source of his voice on the outside again.  **"Foolish mortal,"** he chuckled.

 

Naruto did a sweep of the apartment but didn't find anyone there, he didn't feel anyone else in the house other than his best friends. But then something came to his mind and his closed his eyes, he was standing next to his chair at the table again as he focused his mind on himself, fully aware of his friend's worried stairs. He focused on himself and the feeling that the voice gave him when it spoke, be tried to focus on it more, but it felt as though he was hitting a wall. Like someone closed the door from the inside and you can't get in, however, he did manage to feel out the voice and found that it was coming from within himself.  _"Who are you, what are you doing inside of me?"_ He questioned the voice with curiosity.

 

Now the fox was pleasantly pleased by this new turn of events, he had never thought that his container would ever talk back to him so soon. But nevertheless, it was something that he could work with.  **"Who I am and what I am is not important, just know that our souls are connected, so if you are hurt, so am I. If you die, so will I, but enough of that. I will make you an offer."**

 

 _"What kind of offer?"_ Naruto thought to the voice, he was skeptical on how this voice was going to help him out if he could not see him. But if what the voice had said was true, then there was some risk involved for him too. But how much of a risk can he afford to take, and how much can the voice afford to take, may as well be two different things.

 

The fox chuckled again at the boy's thought process,  **"I can make it so that you can carry your kit so that it is able to be born. I might even be able to help your friend as well. But you will both have to follow my instructions because if one thing goes wrong, you will both die."**

 

 _"Why would we trust someone that we can not see? If you are inside of me, why have I not known about you until now?"_ Naruto asked, he was curious to know, he's been able to sense his chakra and the chakra of others around him when he focused. But this voice, he's leaving a lot of blank spaces.

 

The fox sighed,  **"I can not communicate with you no other way than this. Until recently, you have been deaf to my voice, sometimes I choose not to talk to you, but I've always been with you. We were bound together the day that you were born and with that bonding, I have powers that can be given on to you and you can use my powers, whether I like it or not. If you don't want your friends to think you're lost it, channel your chakra to your hands and hold onto them, they will hear me through you."**

 

Naruto opened his eyes and looked over at his friends, "Naruto, are you okay now?" Chouji asked his friends, he was worried, Naruto could see that, why wouldn't he be? His best friend hears voices that they can't and does a sweep of the house before muttering to himself. Anyone in their right mind would have called the ward by now.

 

Naruto gave them a sad smile, "yeah, I am," he walked over to them, channeling his chakra into his hands before taking one of theirs in each of his. 

 

"What are you-" Shikamaru started but was cut off when he heard a rumbling voice.

 

 **"Silence Ningen, I have something important to tell you all, so listen well."** The fox announced to them,  **"I am in a good mood today and have heard of your problem, so I will help you. In exchange for my help, you will each do me one favor, a favor in which I can call upon whenever I wish in the future. Now then, two of you are pregnant,"** he stated with an air of finality.  **"In order to keep you both from dying, or losing your kits, whichever came first, you will do something called Chakra Feeding. This will be when you focus your own chakra around your unborn kits to make a shell around them that will protect them and keep them from dying. If you are going to do this, then you will need to train and build up your reserves so that you will be able to contain this shell around you kits in the upcoming months. If you falter at least once during this, either you, your kits or both will die on the spot. Would you be willing to go this far for them even though you aren't ready?"**

 

Shikamaru had a lump in his throat, he didn't want to be a parent so soon, but he couldn't really get rid of this thing without giving it a chance first. Could he? Would he be able t give up a child, his child, just because he didn't think he was ready? He didn't think he was ready, he didn't think he could raise a child on his own. Not at ten, not at eleven, and certainly not at twelve. Would he ever be ready though? "Hey, Shika, you're not alone, you've got us, remember?" Naruto said to him, almost as if he read his thoughts, which he technically did because their minds were technically linked while they were talking with the fox. But they didn't need to know that just yet.

 

**"Yeah, yeah, their your friends, they'll be there for you and stuff, can I get back to my explanation now?"**

 

"Jeez, this mystery voice of yours doesn't sound so scary after all, Naruto," Chouji comment.

 

"I know right," Naruto agreed.

 

**"Ahem, anyway, you will all need to do chakra control exercises to get yourselves ready to form the shell. I'd say you both have about another month or so before your bodies start failing to support your kits. From there, it would be pointless, so get you control up to maybe subpar by then and you'll maybe have a chance at being mommies in the near future."**

 

"MOMMIES!" The two pregnant boys shouted at the same time, and glared at the fox, even though they could not see him, while Chouji chuckled.

 

Naruto rolled his eyes and stopped channeling his chakra, "whatever, we've got to get our control us, so we'll just start with that lame leaf exercises that Iruka-sensei tried to make us do when we were seven. How hard can it be?"

* * *

 

 

As it turned out, the leaf exercise was very hard to do. Especially for Naruto. "Why isn't this working!" The blond yelled out in frustration, they were on a training ground not too far away from the village, but still far enough that no one would find them too quickly. It was Saturday so that meant that there was no school and they didn't have to work at Ichigo and Co for two days. But they had extended their hours with Takima's delivery service for the weekends so they could get a little extra money, the owner, a person named Maki, was a sweet old man that was looking for someone with at least a little shinobi training in their background so that he could get a little more business in his store. They had recently opened this year, things were going well for his store, but it was slow and he thought that hiring three ninja's in training would help with that. It did wonders for Maki's store and now he was able to sell more things faster than he could make the order to restock his shelves, so he gladly extended their house and raised their pay because of this. They would mostly work evening shifts and some night shifts on the weekend, but it was better than nothing.

 

"Calm down Naruto, we just need to focus a little more and then we'll get it. Things like this don't happen overnight you know," Shikamaru said as he picked up the leaf that fell off his head for the second time in a row. He was getting annoyed with the leaf, he remembered he did the exercise once in his backyard while he was looking after the deer for his dad, and it stuck to his forehead just fine then, so why was it so hard now? Id he somehow gains more chakra than last time? It would make sense since he's a going boy and everything, but still, his clan's reserves were known to be small because of the shadows they used, he should have had the leaf sticking to his head within about an hour, but it's already been two and a half hours! Looking at his friends, Chouji wasn't doing much better than either him or Naruto. He sighed, "what a drag."

 

"Well, well, what do we have her, could it be that my son is actually training instead of watching clouds like he usually does?" Came a husky deep voice from the treeline, "or is the alcohol finally getting to me after all this time?" 

 

The trio in the clearing shot their eyes over to Shikaku leaning on one of the trees not too far away. Shikamaru felt like he was going to have a panic attack as he slowly got up and moved closer to his friends. "dad, what are you doing here?" He asked, keeping an eye on his father.

 

"Who me? Oh, I was just looking for my son and his best friend, you wouldn't have happened to see him, have you? He's been gone from home for nearly a whole month now," Shikaku stated as he walked into the clearing. He looked at the three boys now standing closely together, he could see the fear in their eyes, was that towards him? Or was it for something else? "When are you coming, home son? Your mother and I have been worried about you."

 

"I-I'm fine, I'm just not ready to come home yet, that's all," Shikamaru said, cursing himself for stuttering.

 

Shikaku frowned at his son's behavior, "is there something wrong?" He asked talking a few step towards them, but they took a few steps away from him, "I can help, you know," he said stopping the came of back away.

 

"Ne, Nara-sama, could we get back to practicing on our own now?" Naruto asked showing the man the leaf they were practicing with.

 

Shikaku looked the boys over for a while before giving a sigh. He could question them all day, but that would get him no were fast, it's way too troublesome to do it that way. "Alright, go ahead, but Shikamaru, Chouji, you'll be expected up after your done here." Shikaku then walked out of the clearing, leaving the three boys alone, once he was out of sight from them, he looked back over his shoulder to where the boys were now talking. 

 

"Well? Are they coming back home now, Shikaku?" Came Chouza's voice as he walked out from the shadow's of the trees.

 

Shikaku turned to him, "I'm not sure. But I know they're hiding something, I'm not sure what it is, but it happened the night of the festival. What's more, our son's have seen it fit to move in with Naruto in a new apartment building that sold to him by an old hooker on her way out of town a month before. They've only got one person renting a place there, but other. It also seems that three women visit them from time to time." He explained, Chouji gave a confused look to his friend, so he continued, "I don't know much about them other than all three women work at Ichigo and Co. It seems a little odd that three women would just visit them like that though," he said with a thoughtful look.

 

"You don't have anything else on them? Like where they go to after school and stuff? Because I know for sure that I saw them running around town sometimes making deliveries," Chouza stated thinking back to those times. He and Shikaku were looking for their son's the day after they found their notes, and wanted to talk to them after they got out of class. But when they went to get them, they couldn't be found anywhere, and their teacher, Iruka, told them that they had already left for the day. Since then, the only place they have been able to find their sons and Naruto was at school, every time they tried to talk to them after school, they would find a way to disappear into thin air. In it wasn't for the fact that they wanted answers from them, they would be impressed by their skills of evasion. However, this was getting very close to drawing the line. They wanted their sons home and they wanted answers now.

 

"Chouza, I think we should go and get a progress report from their sensei at the academy. With all that's been going on, he must have noticed something out of the ordinary about them during this time." Shikaku said as he started leaving the training ground, "if anything, it would give us a clue as to what they might be thinking." Chouza turned back to watch the three boys talk a little more before turning to follow Shikaku. They were too far away to hear what they were saying, but if they won't give them any answers about their whereabouts, then they must have left tracks somewhere, they were only academy students after all.

* * *

 

 

**Back with Naruto and friends**

 

Naruto breath a sigh of relief once he felt Shikamaru's and Chouji's dads disappear from the training field. He turned to his friends, "guys, we've got to up the time on our henges," he stated.

 

"Do you think they're on to us already? I thought we were doing well in avoiding them," Chouji said sadly.

 

"Yes, we're still doing well enough in that area, but remember all those times where we almost got caught? Plus, it's been a month now, they would have to know that we're avoiding them on purpose." Shikamaru stated, "I bet the next thing that they would do is try to talk to Iruka sensei. After that, they may try to pull us out of class at a time when they know that we won't be able to escape them without drawing attention to ourselves in the process."

 

"So what should we do? Are you two going to move back in with your families now?" Naruto asked, it would be a good idea, if not for the whole baby thing.

 

"Hell no, I actually like living on my own with you guys," Chouji said, surprising them with the sudden curs. "Listen, I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I think that we need to pull our grades up and pass the academy. I don't just mean average grade level, I mean the top of the class, or at least close enough to it."

 

"What are you thinking Chouji?" Naruto asked, sensing the beginnings of a good plan form in his head. 

 

"Well, in my clan, since we learn about the body at a young age, I was thinking that I could pick up medical ninjutsu on top of that. You can focus on being sneaky and collecting information because you seem to be pretty good at that since you do a lot of pranks and stuff. And Shika's already the brains, we'd make a grate team in the future," the Akamaichi explained.

 

"Oh, yeah that sounds awesome!" Naruto said happily, but then he deflated, "but how can we get the old man to see it that way?"

 

Shikamaru thought for a long while on that, closing his eyes so that, "we would need to talk to the Hokage and mention it subtly enough so that it doesn't seem like we're pushing our ideas on him. Usually, the teams would have two boys and one girl, but we're three boys, I don't really think that means anything other than they think this would balance things out gender-wise."

 

Naruto was also thinking as well, his friends noticed that he wasn't paying much attention to Shikamaru's explanation, "Naruto?"

 

"Hm? Sorry, I was just thinking about what that voice said earlier," Naruto said as he placed a hand on his stomach. "He told me that our souls were bonded the day that I was born, so what if, he's sealed inside of me? What if he's going to try something when my baby is born?" He looked up at his friends then, a worried look on his face, "what if he tries to take over my babies body so that we won't be bonded anymore?"

 

Shikamaru looked at Naruto for a moment, processing what the blond was saying before a light went off in his head, "we need to up our studies." He said suddenly, they looked at him, "think about it, how do souls get bonded? Most-likely by a ritual of some kind that applies a seal to something of importance, if that something so happened to be Naruto himself, then it would make sense right? If Naruto gets hurt really badly or something, then the thing sealed inside of him would also get hurt too. But more than that, the thing inside of him could also hurt him and the baby! So I think that we should all focus and learn at least some fuuinjutsu just in case something like that happens in the future."

 

"What's fuuinjutsu?" Naruto asked, honestly confused, his friends looked at him as if he sprouted a second head from his butt. Naruto rolled his eyes, "I was kicked out that dad because Sakura kept going on and on about how I stole her seat or whatever. Which, for the record, I didn't since she wasn't even in the room when I sat down in that seat first."

 

Shikamaru facepalmed, "of course, alright, let me explain," he explained to his friends what fuuinjutsu was and how it worked. He told them what it uses were and the many ways they could use it, "but the only problem is, we'll need to be at lest genin level to the books we would need to study it." 

 

"There's an academy student section, so we could use that," Chouji pointed out.

 

"Yeah, but they won't let me in," Naruto said. "It's because of what I told you that night, remember? Everyone in this village hates me, other than you guys, I don't have any friends. If I go to the library, then I would just be chased out and maybe worse if anyone else hears about 'the demon' trying to learn something." He pouted, the villagers had always referred to him as a demon, he didn't know why though, his birthday was the same day as the festival, so he figured that they were just using him as a scapegoat to take out their anger on. He hated it, he wished he knew the real reason why the village hated him so much.

 

Chouji watched Naruto for a few seconds before clapping his hands to get his friend's attention, "hello, we know how to henge, don't we? Let's just use that, we'll go there and pick out whatever books we need and stay there until closing time!" He said cheerily, "we can't check out anything, but if we bring something to take notes, we won't need to."

 

Shikamaru placed a hand on Chouji's shoulder, "I'm really rubbing off on you aren't I?" He smirked at his friend's blush.

 

"Okay, let's make a list of things that we want to study before we have to start our shift," Naruto said looking at the time. They had about an hour and a half to get to work.

* * *

 

 

Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji all agreed that they would be going to the library during their lunch break to study during the week, and then stay there in the mornings on the weekends. Shikamaru would study strategy, planning, and battle tactics. Chouji was going to pick up medical ninjutsu and some anatomy books, while Naruto studied information gather techniques. They would study sealing as much as they could during this time, while also studying other things that they would need to know for class. By the time they were done with the list, it was almost time for work, so they went back to their apartment in the formes of Luna, Lin, and Hitomi before getting dressed for work. When they were at work, they made a promise to themselves that they would keep their henges up even on deliveries from now on, since they usually dropped the henge to make the rounds, figuring that this would be like another way to do chakra control while working on strength and speed. They also made a training schedule for them to fall so that they wouldn't fall behind their classmates in taijutsu, but knowing they would have to take it easy when they start to get bigger in the coming months. As of right now, they were just starting their shifts at Takima's delivery service. 

 

"Oi, girls, could you come here for a second, I would like to talk to you about something." Said the owner, Maki, as the trio clocked in.

 

"Sure thing boss, what's up?" Asked Luna as they followed their boss to his office.

 

"Hm, I know I'm a little old, but I am no fool. You three are hiding something, aren't you?" Maki said to them, giving them a hard stare that said 'don't lie to me, or your fired'.

 

Not wanting to get on the man's bad side, because he was so nice to them all the time, they came clean. Or as clean as they could, "well sir, the truth is, Lin and Luna just found out that they're pregnant, "Hitomi told him.

 

Maki's eyes widen, "my, congratulations! Do the fathers of your babies know the good news?" He asked with a kind smile, he expected them to blush and be embarrassed by his question, but he was met with the look of shame on their face. This set of alarm bells in his mind, "what's wrong, did something happen to them?"

 

"No, no, it's not that, it's just that, we..." Luna started but then took a deep breath before telling their boss what happened to them on the night of the Kyuubi festival. Editing out their real names, of course. Also changing up the story a little so it seem that they had just moved to the village a couple months before. So now Maki knew everything from the fire to the rape, he was shocked, "and then when we found out that we were pregnant just this morning, we were so shocked that we didn't know what to think."

 

Maki nodded his head, "right, well first things first, are you both keep them?" 

 

"Yes, we were thinking that, since we lived together, we would be able to make enough money between the three of us to stay afloat and keep the building we own up and running," Hitomi stated.

 

"Yes, well, you are committed to this, I'll give you that. But since you two will be first-time moms, you're going to need to do much more than just staying afloat." Maki thought for a moment before taking out some papers, "here, this is some applications for the manager position. I know you've only been working here for a few weeks, but you have shown more skill in this line of work than anyone else that I have seen since I set up shop, so I want you to fill out these forms. I'm going to test you in a week and if you pass, then you'll get the position. It comes with higher pay and holiday bonuses since we're doing so well now thanks to your suggestions. However, you will have to work longer hours on the weekends, since you told me about your other job in the red light district, which I don't think new mothers should be living there with a baby on the way. But I can't make no decisions for you, I can only tell you what I think."

 

For a moment, the trio didn't know how to react, but soon a smile broke out on their faces. "Thank you so much, boss!" They said all together as they started filling out the forms and before getting ready to start making deliveries. 

 

"Oh wait a minute, Luna-san, I have a request to make," Maki stated before they could leave the office.

 

"Yes, what is it, boss?" Luna asked.

 

"About sometime yesterday during the evening shift, the person that works the register called in sick and hasn't been able to come in as of yet. Would you mind take his place until he comes back?" Maki asked he explained that he could pay her extra if she did this because she was supposed to be on the schedule for deliveries today. Luna agreed and he showed her how the register worked.

 

Luna was now standing behind the register for Takima's front shop. In addition to the delivery service, Maki owned a shop that sold just about anything and everything shinobi related, his delivery teams would deliver the orders that were called in for any number of things such as weapons, soldier pills and food supplies, camping gear, and even clothes could be delivered if a customer wished. The store was named simply 'Ninja Stuff', not a well-rounded name, but who was she to judge? Luna was just reading up on the weapons that the store carried and wondered how well she would do with some of the blads when a man with a cigaret in his mouth walked up to the front. "Hey, could you help me out? I'm looking for some Chakra blades, my other ones broke on a mission and I need new ones," he said in a lazy tone.

 

Luna looked the man in his eye, almost forgetting that she was supposed to be working the front today instead of deliveries. "Oh, oh my, I'm so sorry! I'm still a little new here and I usually make deliveries, so I forgot that I was working the register right now!" She laughed it off while rubbing the back of her neck before going through the weapons catalog to find the thing that the man was asking for, "you said chakra blades right?" The man nodded, she looked down the list for a second before smiling, "here are, it will be isle 260 next to the elemental blades on your left," she smiled cheerfully at him as he thanked her and went to pick his new weapons. Luna sighed, happy that she was able to play that off as smoothly as possible, she then went back to looking through the catalog and was interrested in the blades that the man had asked about. The blades were used to channel one's chakra through it to make them sharper, you could even channel some of you elemental chakra into it to enhance your attacks. This made her wonder more about the blades and it's different types, and got lost in looking over the many weapons the store carried.

 

"Excuse me, I'm ready to check out now," came the deep voice from the man before, startling Luna from her musing.

 

"Eep," Luna turned to see the man was standing right in front of her, she blushed at his handsomeness. The cool way he held the blades, she shook herself from her thought and rang up the man's new weapon of choice. "Alright, that will be 6,000 ryo, how will you like to pay?" She asked, watching as he took out some bills from his wallet to pay, she took the money and started checking it against the price before giving him his change back.

 

"You're new here, aren't you?" The man suddenly asked leaning on the counter casually.

 

"Huh? Who me? Uh, yeah, how'd you know?" Luna asked as she took out his change from the register.

 

"Cause I haven't seen you around here before, did you just move to the village recently?" The man asked.

 

Luna blushed at the questioning, doing a good impression of a shy civilian girl, "Um, yes, I did. My sisters and I just moved to two last week."

 

"Oh yeah? Where are you living now, if you don't mind me asking?" The man asked, Luna was unsure if she should tell him or not, but he was being so nice. The man noticed her inner turmoil and chuckled, "you must forgive me, I seem to have forgotten my manners, my name is Asuma. Asume Sarutobi, nice to meet you..." he implied for her name since she wasn't wearing a name tag.

 

"Oh, it's Luna..." she paused for a moment before continuing, "Luna Tenshi."

 

Asuma smiled, "well you do seem pretty angelic," he said as with a kind smile. "Say, maybe, if you and your sisters aren't busy, I could have a tour of the village arrange. You know, so you can get to know the village better."

 

"Ahm, I would have to talk to my sisters, but that sounds nice," Luna said happily. While on the inside, she was starting to freak out a little and wondered how much the other two would yell at her for agreeing to let this Asuma guy show them around the village when he was more than likely flurting. Oh yeah, Naruto knew flurting when he saw it, living in the red light district exposed him to a lot of things, and this was just the tip of the ice burg. Asuma may have been smooth with it, but it was still clear to see. " _Maybe  I should have downsized my chest before coming to the front if guys were going to hit on me like this,"_ he thought as he finished making plans with Asuma and waved him goodbye.

 

Later that day at the end of their shift, Luna saw a depressed looking Lin and a chuckling Hitomi waiting for her. "What's wrong with you guys?" She asked coming up to them so that they could start heading home.

 

"Oh man, Naruto you should have been there! It was so funny," Chouji laughed in his henged while Shikamaru looked like he wanted to run away and hid. 

 

"What happened?" Naruto asked as they started leaving the store's back room.

 

"My dad was hitting on me while he was drunk," Shikamaru sulked. He was following his friends as he recalled the events that day, he and Chouji had shown up to deliver something to the Nara compound when Shikaku answered the door drunk. He made it a little obvious that he was under the influence, but the waved it off so that they could get out of there without possibly getting caught, in all honesty, he looked a little surprised two find two girls at his door with large boxing in their hands from the company he was sure his son was working for. Nevertheless, he accepted the order and started flirting with Lin in a way that made him wonder about his parent's relationship since he left home. After some more flirting, and Chouji trying not to giggle at Shikamaru's misfortune, Yoshino finally came home and knocked some sense into her husband before slamming the door in their faces. Shikamaru was so embarrassed by the things his father was saying, he could not believe that his dad, of all people, would flirt with another woman while his mom was away.

 

"And then his mom shut the doors in our faces, it was then I started laughing my but off while we were leaving. Shika's face was as red as a tomato!" Chouji said, finishing telling Naruto the tail of the flirting Nara clan head, Naruto was cracking up at Shikamaru's expense.

 

"Oh man, now I really did wish I was there so I could have seen that myself!" Naruto giggled.

 

"I know right, if we ever get caught by him, we could use that as some blackmail," Chouji giggled.

 

Naruto placed a hand on Chouji's shoulder, smiling proudly, "I'm starting to rub off on you, aren't I?" He asked with proud waterfall tears falling from his eyes, Shikamaru rolled his eyes and laughed at his friend's antics.

 

Just when they were halfway home, they were stopped by two people, "excuse me, ladies, but would you happen to have seen these two?" They turned slowly to see Shikaku and Chouza standing behind them with a picture of Shikamaru and Chouji each in his hands.

 

Coolly, without panicking, Hitomi answered him, "yes, we visit them sometimes, why? Is there something wrong with them?" He answered, on the way to work earlier, they agreed that they would make it seem that their henges were the ones that owned the building and was allowing them to stay there for the time being.

 

"No, no, we just want to know where they are, that's all," Shikaku looked at Hitomi for a moment, he recognized her from earlier when he was pretending to be drunk in order to get a read on them. The only thing he could get off of them was that they were civilians, they just moved to the village after their house burned down, and was given an apartment building from a woman heading out of town. He was trying to connect the dots, but wasn't sure that they were really connected or not, it was too soon to tell anyway. Not only that, since it was the weekend, they couldn't find Iruka because he was off on a two-day mission and would be back in time for class Monday morning. Shikaku didn't like the way things were turning out, but these three women may just be the key they need to find out something of value about their son's actions. However, the more they talked to the three women, the more they got the feeling that the only thing connecting them to their boys, was the apartment building.

 

"We don't really know around here that way, we just moved here a couple weeks ago and managed to get lucky when this kid came to talk to us about an apartment building," Lin explained. "He said that this lady who was just leaving town just sold him an apartment building, my sisters and I couldn't believe our luck when he offered us a place to stay."

 

"Who was this kid? Do you know him?" Choza asked they had convinced the girls to stop off at a diner so they could talk to the trio to get more information from them after introducing themselves to them. This might have been their only chance to talk to them easily without scaring them off. This could also open up a way for them to visit every now and then to check up on their sons in the future. 

 

"No, we didn't really know him at the time. We were simply looking for a place to stay that was cheap enough so we could be together, we've already started working and are looking for better room and board, but for now, it's not so bad where we live." Luna stated happily, "and those boys are very helpful too, right girls?"

 

Lin and Hitomi nodded, "yeah, they let us live in the landlord's apartment since we were older and wanted to stay together."

 

"Wait, not to be rude, but if he was the one that bought the place, shouldn't he be living there?" Shikaku asked.

 

"Yeah, that's what we told him too, we felt bad that he was giving us the biggest place in the building. But he just waved it off and said something strange," Hitomi said looking like she was remembering what the boy said to her. So far, Chouji, Shikamaru, and Naruto are all very pleased with their acting skills thus far. Not only were their henge's sold, but undetectable, so even in the eyes of a seasoned shinobi, they were slipping right under their radar.

 

"What did he say to you?" Chouza asked, wondering what the boy could have said. He knew it was Naruto they were talking about, but they didn't seem to know him, or at least, not back then, they may have made contact with him more often after that meeting. They may even be speaking with their sons regularly if they live in the same building, but he still wondered, why were two clan heir choosing to live away from their respective clans. It didn't make sense to Choza, or Shkaku that their sons were acting this way.

 

"Oh, I remember now, he said that if people knew that he was living there, or that he owned the building, they would just come and burn it down again." Hitomi said happy that she remembered, but then she frowned, "but I don't see why anyone would want to burn down a building for that reason alone. Especially when they know that an orphan with no money is living there."

 

"No money?" Shikaku asked, wondering how Naruto would have been able to own a building without some money to give in exchange for it.

 

Luna nodded, "yeah, he told us somethings, but not all. I always get the feeling that he's hiding something from us whenever we ask about his personal life. He never tells us anything more than the little things that anyone could see."

 

"Like what?" The dads asked.

 

"Like how he's going to be a ninja one day and be the strongest ninja ever. Or how he's always telling us that he's going to be Hokage and he needs to be out training as much as he can so he can get stronger," Luna giggled. It was fun to talk about yourself as if you didn't know you were doing it, kind of like a game of guess who.

 

"But he doesn't tell us other things, but we see it on his face sometimes," Lin stated somberly. Shikaku and Chouji stayed silent as they listened to the women speak, they had a feeling they were about to learn something important, "did you guys know that people overcharge him for food? Or that he gets yelled at for just walking down the street with a smile on his face?" The men were silent still, "I saw him walking home one day and this woman actually threw a bag of trash on him from her apartment window as he was walking by, but he didn't do anything about it."

 

Lin and Hitomi shot a look at Luna, realizing that Naruto was talking about something that had actually happened to him. They remembered the day well, it was after school and Naruto were supposed to meet up with them at the park afterward so they could play some games before going home for dinner. When Naruto arrived, he smelled like trash and rotten food, they had changed their plans and ended up spending the rest of the day at the lake before they went home with wet clothes. They were scolded for it and couldn't have dinner until they took a bath and changed their clothes, but what about Naruto? What did he get when he got home that day? They didn't know, and could only guess that he did the same thing they did, minus the scolding. They looked down at the table, feeling bad for not realizing how much Naruto was missing out when he didn't have a family to come home to. Someone to love him...then they realized that they could be his family now, even though their dads were right in front of them, they were in a henge, a sold, realistic henge. They knew they were just worried about them and wanted to know about how they were doing, but it still made them mad when they thought back on all the words that were said about their friend who did nothing wrong, ever. It was then that Shikamaru came up with an idea.

 

"Do you...do you both know why Naruto's friends are staying in that building with us?" Lin asked the men sitting across from them. Shikaku and Chouji were a little surprised on the sudden change in subject. Chouji and Naruto were wondering what their genius friend had up his sleeve. When the fathers shook their head in the negative, she went on, "Shikamaru, he's your son right?" She asked Shikaku, who nodded once, "he said that there were people living in his house that he couldn't recognize as his parents anymore. It was something they said that made him feel as if he didn't know them anymore, so he left to live with people that he felt he could trust."

 

Suddenly an image of their sons at the dinner table while they talked about the blond came into their minds. Chouza looked into his drink as if it held the answers, and Shikaku just turned to look out the window. They were thinking about that night before their sons left home. Feeling satisfied with his work, Shikamaru got up from the booth they had been sharing and motioned for his friends to follow his lead, "thank you for the drinks, but I think it's about time we get home. We have things to do in the morning."

 

Once they were far enough away from the dinner, Chouji spoke up. "Why did you say all that? Won't it make them want to find us more now?" 

 

Naruto looked over at his friends in henge, wondering along the same lines. Shikamaru kept his eyes trained forward as he walked, his tone even, "it's because I told them that, they will stop." He stated, leaving it at that as they reached the red light district. 

* * *

**2 months later**

 

It's been around three months since Naruto and Shikamaru found out that they are pregnant. They are taking it well enough, getting into a routine of waking up early to train, then study, eat breakfast as they head off to school, go to the library during lunch, henge and go to work at their first job, then change for the second, before falling into bed a little after midnight. It was a hard schedule to live by, especially when they were so young and pregnant on top of that, but they made it work. Chouji was a good friend to have in times like these because he made breakfast whenever the two were too tired and focused on studying to do it themselves. They would work on taijutsu and stamina in the morning, followed by chakra control as they got some studying down. They did the leaf exercise to get their chakra control up while they did their best to study history, politics, strategy, medicine, and math. Afterwards, they would make themselves a quick breakfast to go and head out to the academy in their henges so no one would ever see them leave or enter the building, unless Naruto sensed their dads nearby, then they had to make it look like they were living in one of the empty apartments there until they left. speaking of the apartments, a one Anko Mitarashi happened to stop by their building one day, unexpectedly, during their second month asking for an apartment.

 

**Flashback**

 

_1month ago_

 

_It was after school and the trio of friends was just arriving home so that they could change into their delivery clothes when they saw Anko standing outside their office door. "Hello, are you waiting for someone?" Luna asked kindly to the woman they were told was known to be a crazy snake lazy, but they didn't care as long as she paid the rent, they would wash her clothes and clean her apartment too. They were very happy to get a new tenant because the electricity was on the blink again._

 

_"Are you the owner of this apartment building?" Anko asked the girl in front of the two others._

 

_"Yes, I am, would you like to rent an apartment here?" Luna asked._

 

_Anko nodded, eyeing up the women in front of her for a mintue, "yes, how much do you charge per month?" She asked as she was let into the office, she watched as Luna got the papers ready and the other two went to the back to do something._

 

_"Oh, the rent is 11,000 ryo a month, unless you would like an apartment that has two bedrooms, then it goes up to 12,000 ryo," Luna explained._ _Anko was shocked, compared to the other apartment buildings she's lived in, that was pretty cheap! Luna was a little worried that she might have charged too much, but she couldn't lower the rent for just one person, that wouldn't be fair. "Um, is that too much for you, um..."_

 

_"Anko Mitarashi! And no, not at all, that's the best fucking deal I've ever heard in my life! You've just got yourself a new best friend lady," Anko smiled and sighed the papers before gathering up the stuff she came with._

 

_Luna breathes a sigh of relief, "oh, well that's nice, I guess I've made a good friend then," she smiled happily at Ank. She took the key that would open Anko's new home and gave it to her, "here you go, you'll be in apartment 301."_

 

_Anko hesitated for a moment before taking her key, "thanks," she said before leaving. She's never had anyone smile so brightly at her before, it even looked real! She wondered if there was something wrong with the women for a moment, before brushing it off and going to find her new apartment, finding it was only just down the hallway from the office she was in. Hopefully, her previous words don't come back to bite her in the ass, she didn't mind it here though._

 

_As Anko left the room, Shikamaru and Chouji entered the room unhenged, "so did we get another one?" Shikamaru asked, already in the delivery uniform, his body was already starting to gain a little weight, a sign of what was to come. Naruto was in the same boat._

 

_"Yeah, at this rate, we'll be able to fix the lighting problem by the end of next month!" Naruto cheered as he went to go get dressed,_

 

**Flashback end**

 

After Anko moved in, everything seemed to take a turn for the better, money-wise. Although they were doing well in school, raising their grades seemed like no problem after all the studying that they were doing, with Shikamaru quickly catching up to Sasuke in ranking, they soon hit a snag in their plans. Weight. Naruto and Shikamaru were always skinny, Naruto more so than anyone, and now that they were pregnant, it would start before they started to show. Luckily Chouji brought up this fact a little after Anko moved in so that they would be able to hide it from any of the nosy gossip queens in their class. Using their henge's, Lin and Luna bought a bunch of oversized sweaters and hoodies for their true forms to wear while at school, making up a lie that they were doing stealth training would be all too easy. In a way, they sort of was doing that already, so it's not a complete lie. On another note, their dads, Shika's and Chouji's, did not go out of their way to try and find them as much as they used to. Instead, they would ask Lin, Hitomi, and Luna how their sons were doing, since they were 'living in the same building as their sons' and all that. The trio would make up something simple about themselves that put their fathers at ease, the false news is better than no news, as they had once heard from someone in the village. Sometimes Shikaku or Chouza would stop by the shop that they worked at, sometimes one or all three would be working in the front because the person for the register was sick or just didn't show up to work that day. On one such occasion last week, Asuma had come in after Chouza had left the shop and had met all three 'sisters' because two of the people that supposed to work the register that day had quit, and once was fired. They didn't know what the last one was fired for, or why the other two quite, but since they just became the top managers of the place, it was their job to find replaces for them as soon as possible. They never realized how much fun and how tedious being a manager really was. Sure they got higher pay, but why did the employees under them have to be so lazy about their work? 

 

**Flashback**

 

_1week ago_

 

_They were in the middle of looking through some applicants when Asuma came in, "hello ladies, could one of you help me?" He asked, Luna was in the back at the time and didn't come out until the end of his next comment, "I was on a mission recently and my weapons broke, could you point me to the chakra blades?"_

 

_By now, Luna had come out of from the back of the store from just in time to see Hitomi looking through the catalog for him. Luna took that moment to check out Asuma a little better, he was in jonin uniform, when he wasn't last time, he still smoked, he had a nice beard, there was a band around his waist. Even with his uniform on, Naruto could tell that this man was strong, but he could also tell that he was smooth in his way of talking. They would have to be careful around this man, or else they would get caught right away. "Hey, aren't you that guy from last time?" Luna asked, making herself known to them._

 

_Asuma looked up and took a second to take in the redhead before chuckling, "haha, looks like you caught me, yeah, it's me. You're the Moon Angel, right?"_

 

_"Moon Angel?" Lin and Hitomi asked at the same time as they looked at Asuma and the now blushing Luna, Shikamaru smirked._

 

_"Oh no, sis, why didn't you tell us you found yourself a boyfriend that last time you were up front? We would have gone out and celebrated!" Lin said with a sly smile on her face as she watched her 'sister' blush brighter and glare at her._

 

_Asuma, for all his shinobi training, cluttered at the accusation, "boyfriend?!"_

 

_Hitomi caught on to what Lin was doing and played along, she leaned on the counter and smirked up at Asuma, "what's the mater mister? Is our little imouto not good enough for you?"_

 

_Asuma chuckled nervously, "no, no, it's nothing like that, it's just that it's such a leap. We've only met once when I invited her on a tour of the town, but she never got back to me."_

 

_"A DATE!" Lin and Hitomi said together, having so much fun watching as the henged Naruto turned into a tomato._

 

_"IT'S NOT A DATE!!" Luna yelled at her sister and started pushing her index fingers together like they saw Hinata do when she was nervous, "it's just a tour. You know, to get to know the village better, sheesh."_

 

_Lin chuckled, "now, now imouto, there's no need to be shy about it. We're still new here, and even if this really isn't a date, you've still got a whole village of guys to choose from. Right?" She cooed as she walked over to Luna and put an arm around her shoulder._

 

_"I hate you right now," Naruto whispered to his friend._

 

_"Payback is a bitch, isn't," Shikamaru whispered back before giving a bright smile to Asuma, "you'll take really good care of our sis, won't you, mister...um?"_

 

_"Asuma, Asuma Sarutoni, and really, this isn't what you two think it is," Asuma tried to defend himself._

 

_"Oh yeah, then what's it supposed to be, Asuma-san?" Hitomi asked as she played with a lock of her golden brown hair._

 

_"It's an invitation! Yeah, I wasn't just inviting just your sister, I wanted all of you to come!" Asuma said, in his mind, he was praising himself for not showing any panic to the civilian women in front of him. When he came in here today, he did not expect to see Luna's sisters at the register, he was actually just going to ask out Luna on that tour, which was actually a date. He was happy that he hadn't lost his touch since he was away with the Guardian Twelve protecting the Daimyo for so many years. But now that he's seen all three sisters, he could not deny that they were all hot if Luna wasn't a show stopper before, her sisters were drop dead gorgeous! He wondered if he could find a way to have all of them go out with him and maybe settle down like his old man had been wanting him to do, he was still the council's prime target to bring back the Sarutobi clan, seeing as how nephew, Konohamaru, was still way too young for it._

 

_"An invitation?" Hitomi said thoughtfully before looking at her sisters, they shared a look before she smiled back at Asuma, "could you hold on for a moment?" She said as the three girls went into a corner and huddled up, planning their next steps, "feel free to look around the store while we talk," he called over before going back to their whispered conversation. Asuma shrugged and started looking around the store for any weapons that might interest him._

 

_"What the hell are you guys doing?" Naruto hissed at his two friends who were just giggling softly._

 

_"Simple, that guy's a jonin, he's got knowledge on elements, this is a prime opportunity to up our studies and train in something new." Shikamaru urged he was thinking about all the possibilities that they could have if they knew what their element was and applied it too what they were already learning and training. He was nearly drooling at the thought._

 

_"Yeah, think about how cool it would be if we got him to train us, or just maybe give us some tips on it. We could even have our other henges meet him somewhere casually." Chouji said, "we could even be the top of our class!"_

 

_"Whoa, whoa, hold on there, you guys are forgetting some things," Naruto said trying to calm them down._

 

_"Like what?" They asked._

 

_"Uh, hello, two of us is pregnant, if he finds out, and this 'tour of the village' he on about turns into a weekly meeting, then what? He'll definitely notice sooner or later because we can't move or hide our growing bellies, even with the henge! What if he's not into us anymore if he finds out that two of us are pregnant. Plus, we're still boys under the henge and we haven't tested out how long we can keep it up!" Naruto reminded them, "so with that said, I think we should just tell that we can-"_

 

_"Then we'll test it," Shikamaru said._

 

_"Test what? How quickly we'll get rejected?" Naruto glared at the Nara._

 

_Shikamaru rolled his eyes at the disguised blond, "no you baka, we're going to test how long we can keep it up. So far, we've got it up to almost eight hours, that's a lot, this would be a good time to see if we can hold it for longer without taking a break in-between."_

 

_"You're not making this easy for me to say no, are you?" Naruto asked, still glaring at his friend._

 

_Shikamaru smirked, "next time don't make fun of me when my father hits on me."_

 

_"Hey, it's not like he knew it was you, these henges are real, remember?" Naruto reasoned as he stood up and walked back to the register when they saw Asuma coming back over._

 

_"That doesn't matter!" Lin said putting a hand on her hip as the two sisters glared at each other._

 

_"Girls, girls, please, that's not important now, besides, we need to figure out what Luna's going to wear on her date," Hitomi said with a giggle as Luna started to blush again, they turned back to Asuma. "Okay, she'll accept the offer!"_

 

_"Hitomi-nee!" Luna whined, "I can answer for myself!" She pouted cutely._

 

_Asuma chuckled at the girl's antics, "actually, like I said before, this isn't a date-"_

 

_"SEE!" Luna interrupted._

 

_"I'm actually inviting all of you out for the tour," Asuma finished as if nothing happened._

 

_"What!" Lin and Hitomi said in shock, they did not expect that to happen, Luna smirked._

 

_"Oh yes, I remember now, I told Asuma-san here that we were all new to the village. He wanted to invite all  of us, isn't that right, Asuma-san?" Asuma nodded, looking as cool as a cucumber about the whole thing, "I mean, it would be rude of us not to take him up on his offer, right, girls?" Lin and Hitomi had a glaring battle with a smirking Luna while Asuma how he would subtly implement a CRA without the girls getting mad at him, he would need to put some thought into it and hope things don't go haywire in the process._

 

_After another minute, Asuma had figured enough out to be confident with his actions and started to leave the store. "Alright then girls, I'll meet you in the village square around 1 o'clock next week Saturday. It'll be the spot right in the cent of the village with a large tree surround by a bunch of shops, you can't miss it._

 

_Asuma had already walked out of the store by the time the trio had noticed he was gone, "wait, what?"_

 

**Flashback Kai**

 

**Now**

 

It has been a week since that meeting and today was the day of the tour/date and they were not ready for it. In preparation for this day, the three did some research. Sure they knew what guys did on a date because they were, and Chouji's and Shika's parents had set 'playdate's with potential wives for them when they were four. But how the hell was a girl supposed to act on one of these things? They didn't know, and every book and magazine they read about the subject was not very reliable at all. One said they needed to be flirty, but not slutty. One said you needed to be 'cute clumsy', they didn't know how the hell that could be done at the same time. One said they needed to be a little slutty, but not a tramp. Another one said they should be professional but show a little skin. By the end of their last magazine, they were ready to tear their hair out of their heads, so they turned to their last resort, Anko Mitarashi. So, at nine in the morning, the trio found themselves knocking on apartment 301, waiting for the snake mistress the answer.

 

When Anko opened her door that morning, half asleep and still in her pj's, which consisted of a large shirt and panties, she was surprised. Maybe a little shocked, to see her new landlady at her door with a blush on her face, along with her sisters behind her. She was even more shocked when she heard, "could you teach us how to be sexy for a guy?" Come out of the redhead's lips, she thought she was hallucinating. But then again, weirder things have happened, so she shrugged her shoulders and said, 'sure'.

 

"So who's the guy?" Anko asked after she put on some pants and followed the trio back to their apartment. 

 

"Asuma Sarutobi," Hitomi said quietly, "he's taking us on a tour of the village."

 

Anko looked at them owlishly, "all three of you?" They nodded, she didn't think that this day could get much better, but it had. Asuma Sarutobi was a hard man to get, she should know since she tried to get him a couple time in the past, but the man wouldn't budge. She was starting to think he was gay or something. Either way, she was going to make sure that these girls were prepared for their date, Anko style. She smiled at them, "Alright girls, listen up, I'm about to get you all nosebleed ready,  from here on out, you may call me Anko-sensei," she said proudly. Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji felt a chill run down their backs at her words.

 

 

  **To be continued...**


	3. The Date of knowledge

"Every date you go on will be like a mission. If you want to get the guy, you have to be hot. You need to be sexy, and most importantly, don't let them get the idea that you're easy." Anko Mitarashi, known as the crazy snack bitch of the leaf, was drilling her 'students' in the art of dating deception. "You want to get the guy to agree to a second date, you have to make them work for it, but don't make them feel like they are working extra hard. Make it feel like its worth the wait. Now then," she paused her passing in order to take in the trio's appearance, "we need to get you sexified, but still make it so you don't put on a show everytime you bend down or something. Show me what you guys usually wear," She ordered as she stood in the master bedroom of the three bedroom apartment. 

 

Luna got up and walked over to the large wardrobe in the room. Since they didn't do much else other than work and go to school, along with some training on the side, they didn't have many clothes to choose from. From Naruto's bright, random clothing, to Shikamaru's plain and unimpressive wear, not to mention Chouji's style was just as plain, they did not have anything they could possibly us to go on this 'tour' with. And since they didn't have anything else, they just put all their clothes in one place, i.e. the wardrobe that Anko was looking through now. They made sure that all their clothes with clan symbols that could give them away were packed away in a vintage trunk case that doubled as their coffee table in the living room. They bought it for times just as these for if someone came over and wanted to look through their closet for any reason. As Anko looked through the plain, dark, and mismatching color-coordinated clothing options, she was not happy. She started tossing out all their clothes one by one in hopes of finding something that she could hopefully use to fulfill these girls request of being hot for a date, so far, she was down to the last shirt and still couldn't find a way make any of the selections hot or even cute for a girl to wear. 

 

"What the hell is wrong with your closet? Did you buy it off of some boys or something?" Anko asked as she looked disdainfully at the pile of clothes that now lay on the floor in the center of the room. She looked around the apartment with a frown, "and where the hell is all your make-up and jewelry and shit? All I see here is a place that was just moved into, I thought civilian girls liked dressing in bright colors and wearing make-up with those smelly perfumes you see in those fancy ass stores! It's like you guys didn't get the memo or something."

 

Naruto was to seconds away from yelling that they were boys and they just move in, three months ago, but stopped himself. "I'm sorry, Anko-san but-"

 

"I'm sorry, who?" Anko asked looking at her nails uninterestedly.

 

Luna sighed, "Anko-sensei, but we don't really do all that stuff. We were raised to dress in moderation and not be all girl," it wasn't a lie.

 

Anko raised an eyebrow at the redhead, "what, you mean like in one of those religious convents or something?"

 

"Eh, yeah, like that, our parents didn't want us to be corrupted, so we were sort of raised more boyish?" Hitomi looked at his friends to see if this was the right thing to say, they shrugged and went with it, "plus, we haven't been here for a whole lot of time, so we haven't done much more than to find a place to stay and get jobs. Right now we have two so we could pay for the electricity to work better again."

 

Anko listened as she thought to herself, "how much money do you guys have to spare right now?"

 

"We haven't checked it in a while," Lin said as she calculated all the money they made at Ichigo's, Takima's delivery service, and the extra money they made as managers there for the front store since the two were a technically separate business. He added that up, including the money from their two tenants, then subtracted the cost to fix the electricity, plus their daily living cost. His eyes widened, "we have enough money to last us until the next three months!" 

 

"What, really?" Hitomi looked at her sister with a light in her eyes, Shikamaru was a genius after and was in charge of their finances. 

 

Lin nodded, "yeah if we spend wisely and keep saving up, we'll have more than enough money to fix everything and still have enough for ourselves." 

 

"Alright! No more cup ramen for us, I say we go out and celebrate!" Luna cheered happily, cup ramen was nice, but nothing beats a home-cooked bowl of ramen hot from the pot! And he knew just the place to go for it.

 

However, the girls cheering was interrupted when they remembered that Anko was still in the room. "Well it seems that you girls have enough money to spare, so let's go shopping!" Anko said as she pulled Hitomi and Lin to their feet.

 

"Shopping? For what?" Lin asked.

 

"Clothes, of course. What else could it be?" Anko asked as she pulled the girls to the door with the third one trailing behind, she paused a moment to slip on her shoes, "you guys asked me for help to make you all for this date, right? But from what I can tell, you've never been on a date in your lives, and you clearly don't have enough experience to pick out the right makeup and outfits for this sort of thing, so I am taking the rest of the day off to help you three successfully complete your first joint date!"

 

"I thought it was a group date," Luna asked confused.

 

"It's only a group date if theirs a man for all three of ya, hon," Anko winked at the redhead. "But if everything goes well, you guys might have another date, whether it's the same guy or different guys, depends all on how you work your stuff. No, let's go before your late!" 

* * *

 

 

Shopping, Naruto wondered why he had never done it in a henge before now. He was treated way better while he was shopping with Anko, however, he did notice that there were still people whispering around him, though, the topic of the whispers wasn' about him this time. He kept on hearing Anko's name mentioned a few times. He didn't want to put the woman in a bad mood by bringing it up, so he decided to forget it and try to make Anko feel welcomed by them. He could tell that Shikamaru and Chouji were feeling the same way...Although the way the snake mistress kept trying to put them into sexy, short clothing was getting very troublesome.

 

"Anko-sensei, do we really have to dress like this, I don't know how I feel about having so much of my legs out like this," Hitomi said as she exited the dressing room. She was dressed in a dark tub-top fress that complimented her tanned skin, the length of the dress came down to just over her mid-thigh. Naruto and Shikamaru thought the dress would have looked much nicer on Chouji's henged figure if it didn't look like it was one size too small. It did hug his henge's curves nicely, but the fact that his curves were a little bit wider than others on the top and bottom, made the dress look even shorter than it actually was. Plus, the dress looked like it was bent for someone with a B or a C cup, not a D.

 

Anko sighed in frustration as she looked at the dress, it been about an hour since they started, and it was getting late. If she didn't find something for Hitomi to wear that would compliment her larger cup size soon, then the three would be late for their date, and in Anko's mind, the mission would fail. She was not willing to take this failer laying down damn it! This was the first time that she actually hung out with civilian girls for more than a few minutes at a time, and these girls didn't seem to know or care about what people were saying about her. They had earned their way to be called friends, if not allies, in her book, and she would not fail them so soon! Luckily for Anko, a certain genjutsu mistress so happened to be walking by the clothing store that they were currently in. So thinking fast, she threw something else at Hitomi to try on before dashing out the store for backup. Naruto and the others didn't know what else to do other than help their friend get his henged form into another dress while the snake mistress went about doing whatever she needed to do. When they came back out, with Hitomi now in a dark green clone of the dress before it, they were met with the sight of confused, red-eyed women.

 

"Uh, Anko-sensei, who's this?" Luna asked.

 

"This, my sweet little tomato, is Kurani Yuuhi," Anko stated as the redhead pouted at the nickname. "I have in-listed her help so that we can get you girls out of here and off to your meeting sooner rather than later."

 

Kurani, for her part, just took in the forms of the girls in front of her and could only guess what her friend was doing to them. Luna was in a red dress that screamed hooker, Lin was in a blue dress that said 'part-time dancer', and Hitomi looked uncomfortable in what she was wearing. "Okay, I've seen enough, I'm sorry ladies, but it seems that Anko forgot to mention that she's never bought a single piece of clothing that didn't reveal more skin that cover. I, on the other hand, will try my best to help you out." She gave her friend a small glare for pulling her away from her studies to become jonin as she walked over to the trio. "So, tell me about yourselves, what do you guys like to wear when you're not working? Anko told me that you each have two jobs?"

 

Luna nodded, "yeah, we decided that it would be best to have two because of that way, we'd each bring in more money. We were lucky to get both jobs together." She explained, then looked down to the clothes she was wearing, "but as you can see, we need all the help we can get. We've never done anything like this before."

 

Kurani looked at the dress the redhead was wearing, even though it was so short and tight, it did compliment her hair a little, but not by much. She almost looked like a little devil with the red dress and hair. "We don't wear a whole lot of color," Lin started, "we like to be comfortable when we're working. We don't mind bright colors though, but I kind of like to stick to earthly colors that remind me of the forest."

 

"I like light colors, some dark colors here and there," Hitomi answered next, happy that Kurani seemed to have more experience in this field than her friend. No offense to Anko, but her style could use some work, not that it doesn't suit her.

 

"And I like just about anything, as long as it doesn't get me too much attention," Luna said shyly. Her red dress felt like it was moving up north every time she moved, it was uncomfortable! If this what girls go through whenever they get ready for a date or just going out in general, then he respected the hell out of them for it.

 

Kurani nodded and then went in search of clothes that would suit the girls much better than what Anko had them wear. First, Hitomi, she was making up the very small part of the village populous that was more blessed than others in the curviness department. She had a figure that was close to being plus sized, but fit her well and made her look like exotic with her tanned skin and golden brown hair, her eyes were also light brown that seemed to have a touch of honey in them. For her, Kurani picked outa dark red tank top with a generous neckline to be modest, she paired it with a white long-sleeved tie-in-the-front crop top and short jean's shorts that would come up to her mid-thigh. She also picked up some fishnet stockings to go under the jeans. Next, Lin, she was thin with a small hint of chubbiness in some places. For her, Kurani picked out a casual dark brown, off the shoulder, light sweater with a black tank top to under it and a dark green circle skirt. It fit her simple style well enough. Lastly, Luna, for her Kurani had to think a little about what she could give the redhead to wear. She had bright red hair that looked like it was almost on fire in direct sunlight, and her bright green eyes seemed to hold a sea of trees, her sink was light as if she's never been out in the sun before. All in all, she was just as exotic as Hitomi was. With Anko's suggestion of bright colors and Kurani's argument of dark colors, they settled on a dark red off the shoulder long sleeved crop top, a black tank top underneath, a bright pair of orange short shorts. They also gave Luna the options for stockings that could be worn with dark boots, or no stockings so she could wear sandals. She chooses the stockings beings she thought the boots sounded cool and 'bad ass', Anko couldn't have been more proud of the redhead's choice. 

 

Lin wore some converse in a dark green color and Hitomi got a pair in white to match her crop top. With that done, Anko left to pick up more clothes for the girls to replace their plain clothes from before, while Kurani helped with their makeup. She pulled Luna's hair into a ponytail, with gold earrings. Lin's hair was pulled into a messy bun and Hitomi's hair now had bouncy curls. "Hot damn! If this guy doesn't get a bone from just looking at the three of you, then he's got to gay!" Anko praised as she came back with a mountain of clothes in her arms.

 

"Thanks, An-Anko-san, why do you have so many clothes with you?" Lin asked, pailing at the amount he could already see the clothes coming up too. He wasn't expecting this, he thought that they were only going to be going in for one outfit for each of them, not a whole new wardrobe. 

 

"Oh, this? Well since you guys want to keep this guy, I got you some clothes that would fit your new styles." Anko said happily as she checked her watch, "it almost 11:40, what time does your date start? I want to see if I can get you guys to try on a few of these outfits before you go."

 

"11:40! Oh no, we're going to be late!" Hitomi stated in a panic.

 

"Where are you guys meeting?" Kurani asked.

 

"The village square, do you know where that is?" Lin asked, Shikamaru never bothered to explore the village before, only going where he could view the clouds.

 

"If that's so, then don't worry, its just a block away from us. Come on, we'll pay for these and walk with you," Anko said picking up the clothes. "I can drop them off at your apartment too." The three saw no other way out, Kurani was already helping Anko take the clothes up the register to pay and they only had about ten minutes before their 'tour' began, so they just followed behind the older women, taking a brief moment to say goodbye to their hard earned money as they did.

* * *

 

 

In their new outfits, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji, still in henge, arrived at the meeting spot with a minute to spare. Asuma was already waiting for them, "wow, you guys sure have a scene of style about your selves."

 

Luna blushed, "sorry, we wanted to dress nicely, but we didn't have anything to wear, so we asked our friends to help us." She explained, "we aren't too dressed up are we?"

 

Asuma had to stop himself from getting a nosebleed at the sight of the blushing redhead before him. He was a jonin now, he couldn't show weakness. He was a man! Besides, it's not like he was going to have to wait long before he had them all to himself, with that thought, he smiled. "No, no, you all look beautiful, whoever your friends are, they know how to dress," he praised them, "shall we go?" As it turned out, Asuma wasn't going to get lucky that night, because for some reason, every time he tried one of his moves. The ones that always lands him in bed with a pretty girl the next morning, he found that he was coming up empty. Even the oldest tricks in the book could not even help him 'cop-a-feel'. He wondered what was going on, but ignored it as him being rusty in his moves and continued on with the tour as if nothing had ever happened, they still had the rest of the day, and maybe some of the night, depending on how well he played his game. 

 

As for Shikamaru, Chouji, and Naruto, they were having a tough time trying not to give away that they were being helped. You see after they left the store with the trio being a little poorer, Anko had shushinned home in order to get something, and also drop off the shopping bags at the same time. When she returned, she had two-way communicators in her hands to give to the three inexperienced girls before they went on their date. Anko and Kurani, who was roped into helping out again by her friend, followed the three girls and the jonin throughout the tour, giving them tips and advice on what to say or do. They pointed out all of Asuma's tricks to them before they got caught in them, they were surprised how well the girls were doing so they didn't get found out and wondered if they had prior shinobi training. At one point, all three girls had excused themselves from the table when they stopped for a late lunch, to go to the bathroom together. Anko leaned back on the room and smiled, "they would make great ninjas one day if they ever got tired of the civilian life."

 

Kurani looked at her friend for a moment, "yeah, that's true, but they're still civilians. Maybe they would do well, with a little training."

 

"Yeah," Anko smirked, "and I wouldn't mind becoming a sensei, but only for them. I don't want any snot-nosed brats that don't know shit about training, and just wants to be a ninja because it's cool."

 

"I suppose that's understandable. The way things are going, I'm surprised that they seem to be taking this as seriously as we do our missions," the genjutsu mistress commented with a thoughtful look.

 

Anko know that look, it was that of suspicion, "oi, what's that look for? You think they had training beforehand or something?"

 

"I don't know, we'll have to ask them later, but yeah, that's what I was thinking," Kurani turned back to the view they had of Asuma. "What's taking them so long? It's been almost thirty minutes already, I know it doesn't take that long to pee." 

 

"Relax Kurani-chan, they're only civilians, remember? They like to take their time in the bathroom, talking about girly stuff and boys, you remember those days don't you?" Anko asked, making her friend blush, she chuckled before turning back to the table Asuma was reading a menu at, "still, I wish they'd hurry up."

* * *

**With Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji**

 

"Man, I'm beat, how much longer do we have to do this? I want to go home," Chouji whined as he tried to fix his makeup a little to keep busy.

 

"I hear ya, who knew dating was going to be so troublesome in the first place?" Shikamaru said as he looked at his clothes in the full-length mirror that was in the girls' bathroom. Finding it very convenient to have, but wondered why did girls have this in their bathrooms in the first place. "Keeping up this henge for so many hours is very draining." He turned to the side to admire his growing belly under his clothes, you couldn't really see the baby bump thanks to the sweater, but once you got to the tank-top, it became a little more visible.

 

Naruto walked out of the stall he just used, they were out of their henge right now and he found it rather amusing to see them in in their feminine wear. "It shouldn't take that much longer, we've only got the south left to go, but if we say we have to leave soon, then we can just set up another date," Naruto said walking over to the sink to wash his hands then move over to stand next to Shikamaru to see his own reflection.

 

"You two should start going to the doctor's for check-ups," Chouji said once he was done messing with his makeup.

 

The two looked at him, "yeah, we could, but I don't like going there, you studying this stuff so you would be working there soon." Shikamaru said, "I would feel better if I have someone that I can trust check on my baby."

 

"And I wouldn't mind doing that, I'm still a novice right now, I don't want to hurt either of you by accident. I still need to practice on keeping things alive and training my chakra for the Mystical Palm jutsu so I can run diagnostics on you when needed, that takes time and energy. I also need perfect chakra control for that, and I'm still sub-par in that." He walked over to his friends and placed a hand on each of their shoulders, "I know you guys are worried,you're is because, in another month or so, the doctors will be able to tell if his baby has a bloodline or not, and how strong it might be." He said to Shikamaru before turning to Naruto, "and you're worried because there is a chance that something might identify him that our henges can't hide. But at least make one visit, maybe two, just in case, so you know how they're doing, okay?"

 

The two boys nodded their head before leaving the bathroom. They didn't realize that both Anko and Kurani hand heard everything that Chouji just said over the two-way communicator they were given.

* * *

**Back with Kurani and Anko**

 

"Oh my god! They're pregnant!" Anko nearly screamed, thankfully she had enough skill to keep her voice down to a whisper so they weren't found out.

 

Kurani was also shocked, "we definitely need to get their side of the story at the end of this date."

 

But Anko didn't want to wait, she wanted answers now, "no way, screw that, they're on a date with a horny jonin! If they keep seeing him, he might find out and start spreading lies about them or something," it had happened to her once when he had been raped by a group of thugs before becoming a genin. Becoming Orochimaru's student and having his betrail over her head was didn't make things any better. She was worried about he new friends, and she was shocked to find herself thinking that with after only knowing them for a short amount of time. Was she going soft?

 

Kurani tried to calm her friend, seeing her friend's thoughts on her face, "I know you want to help them so they don't end up like you. However, is we go in there now, we'll only blow our cover and the girls might get scared that we know their secret, for now, I think we should just keep going as planned. Agreed?"

 

Anko folded her arms, "agreed," she said begrudgingly, looking away from her friend. They turned back in time to see the girls they were just talking about come back to the table.

* * *

**With Asuma and the boys**

 

Asuma looked up from the menu he was ready when he sensed the girls come back to the table. "Sorry about that, did we keep you waiting?" Lin asked sweetly.

 

Asuma waved it off, "no, not at all," a waiter came over took their orders before leaving them alone again. They talked about simple things like the weather and the places they saw before stopping to eat. Everything seemed to be going fine when Asuma asked, "so, where did you ladies move from?"

 

"Where we moved from?" Hitomi repeated the quested as she looked at her sister, they hadn't expected him to ask that so soon, but they were still prepared, "Um, it's a little village just by the border. It doesn't really have a name, and not many people seem to know it, most people who have been there once or twice before."

 

"On the border huh?" He asked them, they nodded as he thought, "I don't think I've heard of a village in that area."

 

Lin nodded, "yeah, it's really small, it's more like a small settlement there. Not really be enough to be called a village, but it's also well hidden to protect us from bandits and theaves that might want to rob us."

 

Asuma leaned back in his seat as he tried to remember if he might have stumbled upon a little settlement by the border once before coming back to the village. He came up blank but gave the girls the benefit of the doubt and changed the subject. "Okay, well what about you Luna-chan? Do you have a second job outside of working at 'Ninja Stuff?"

 

Their food had just come and the girls were wondering how well their lying was because all three felt a little off guard. They weren't used to this level of questioning. "Ah, yes, we all do, actually." Luna began, "we technically have three jobs."

 

"Four if you count the apartment building," Lin commented.

 

"Four jobs, for all three of you?" Asuma asked, surprised that three civilian women would take on that many.

 

"Mhmm, when we got here, we were offered the positioned of the landlord from a boy named Naruto. He was given the building that we're currently staying in by some woman leaving town a while back, but he didn't feel comfortable with taking over the role so he gave it to us." Hitomi explained, "we currently have two tenants right now."

 

"Interesting," Asuma said with a small nod, "and the other three?"

 

"We technically have a two in one job with the owner of 'Ninja Stuff." Lin pipped up, "when we first started working for him, we only did delivery for a while, but recently we became the managers for his store where we met you. Our last job is at a bar not too far from the building we live in, we are the waitress ."

 

Now Asuma was really interested in that, he was now thinking of a way to get a second date with at least one of these girls so he could learn more. "Whoa, that's a lot of work, what's the name of the bar, maybe I can swing by sometime."

 

"It's a little place called Ichigo and Co, in the red light district," Luna stated shyly. Was it a good idea to let him know where they worked? This could turn into a problem later, but for now, it was out there and Naruto would have to talk with his 'sisters' about it later..

 

"Hey, I know that place," Asuma said with a look of recognition, "I used to go there when I was younger."

 

Lin noticed the nostalgic tone to his voice, it was only a hint, but he picked it up, "used to?" She asked, "why did you stop, was it because of your ninja duties?"

 

"Uh, yeah," Asuma said taking this chance to impress the girls a little, "I was one of twelve shinobi that was hand-picked to be the daimyo's personal guard. I was apart of a group called the Guardian Twelve, we were the best of the best. Which is why I wear this white sash around my waist." Asuma smiled once he saw the starry-eyed looks on the girl's faces as he told them how strong he was,  _"that second is as good as mine now, but how to ask without sounding like I'm being pushy?"_ He pondered.

 

"Wow! That's so cool Asuma-san!" Luna said with stars in her eyes, "say, would you be willing to teach me a few moves?" Naruto was so excited to be so close to someone so strong that the possible chance of learning some cool new jutsu or some taijutsu moves from this guy was too good a chance to pass up. Although, as soon as he realized what he had said, it was too late to take it back, so he played it off, "uh, f-for self-defense, you know? We live in a dangerous part of the village where we could get mugged or rapped, so knowing a way to protect ourselves could be useful, hahaha," he laughed nervously hoping that Asuma would buy the act. Shikamaru wanted to hit Naruto over the head for not thinking his question through enough, instead of blurting it out the way he did. Even though it would be good for them if they were able to get training from this guy, it doesn't mean that he was going to give it so easily.

 

"Ahm, sure thing," Asuma stated with a surprised look on his face at redheads excitement but found it to be reasonable. 

 

Lin stood corrected, "wait, you would really do that for us?" She asked this was way too easy, they would need to step carefully around this guy.

 

Asuma nodded, "sure, why not? I mean, you guys did just move here not too long ago and you are working in an area known for illegal acts." He shrugged, "the way I see it, I would be giving you guys a way to stay safe, there's nothing wrong with that."

 

Lin was speechless,  _"maybe I should turn into a pretty girl more often, as long as I don't have to do all that troublesome shopping again anytime so. Did girls always have it this easy?"_

 

"Awesome, so when and where should we meet?" Luna said, still excited.

 

"Uh, well, I have a mission coming up next month, so how about sometime before then? Is tomorrow around nine good for you guys?" Asuma asked.

 

The girls looked at each other, tomorrow was Sunday so they didn't have to be to work until twelve since they called off today so they could go on this date. "Tomorrow works, but we have to be to work at twelve, is that alright with you?" Hitomi asked, Asuma agreed and they went back to talking about mundane things as they ate their food and paid them before heading back out on the town.

 

The rest of the date went well enough, Shikamaru, Naruto, and Chouji all managed to keep up their henge and their act without flaw. Anko and Kurani still followed behind them in the shadows so they could keep an eye out for Asuma's wandering hands. They didn't have much to worry about because as soon as Asuma tired to touch one of them on the shoulder or something, they would suddenly burst out excitedly with some random question. As the day come to a close, they settled down at a park for a while to watch the sunset and somehow ended up talking about the differences between ninja's and civilians, they weren't sure on how that came about. But the topic soon changed to the subject of chakra blades and elemental affinities, the trio managed to slip the subject in so smoothly that the conversation just flowed on like that. Although Asuma was just as smooth and managed to get a third date from all three of them, the 'self-defense' tutorial for the next day was already decidedly their second. By the time all four of them got everything confirmed for both dates, they parted ways and went home for the night. The trio made it back home to their small three bedroom apartment feeling as though they had just run three miles with bags of sand on their backs, but they couldn't rest yet because when they arrived at their door, Anko and Kurani was waiting for them.

 

"Hello, ladies, when were you going to tell us you were pregnant?" Anko asked as she opened the door to their apartment. Stunned, Shikamaru and his two friends found themselves frozen, thankfully they were still in their henges or else they would have way more explaining to do. Anko stood there waiting, arms folded, "well?"

 

Kurani was already walking up to the door behind Anko, "at least let them into their own home first before you start interrogating them." She said as she opened the door wider for the frozen trio.

 

Shikamaru and his two best friends unfroze and slowly made their way into the little apartment before all three were sitting down in front of the older women. They honestly weren't sure what to say next. They could lie, but they were already doing that. They could tell the truth, but then how could they trust these women to keep their secret? So the only way out of this was just to meet them halfway...for now until they were forced to tell them the whole truth. What a day this turned out to be, first a date with a jonin, now and interrogation/confession from a chunin genjutsu user and her snake charming friend. Shikamaru decided to take point this time and explain the edited version of the 'the event' as they liked to call it now. The three watched as Anko's face went from stone cold professional to one of a ragging potential serial killer as they spoke, and Kurani wasn't doing much better either.

 

"And what about those scumbags? Did you ever report them to the Hokage or ANBU or someone that could rip them a new ass hole?!" Anko yelled she was beyond pissed. How a group of civilian thugs was able to get away with beating and raping women was outrageous!

 

The trio looked down, "no, we were scared that they would either come after us if they found out, or no one would do anything because we were still so new to the village." Luna said in a near-whispered voice.

 

Anko's eyes softened, "so you guys are keeping them? All three of ya?"

 

Hitomi looked up, "actually, I'm not pregnant, only Luna and Lin are, they just beat up...mostly."

 

Lin and Luna shot their eyes at their friend, "what do you mean by 'mostly'?" They asked.

 

Hitomi looked away from them, not wanting to answer, "C-Hitomi-nee, what did they do to you?" Luna cursed herself for almost slipping up a moment ago, but no one seemed to notice other than the three of them.

 

"Nothing...I'll tell you later, okay?" She said then sighed, looking up at the older women with pleading eyes, "please don't tell anyone about this. If people find out, then our parents will know where we are and try to come and take us back home, we didn't want to be used anymore. That's why we're here," her voice dropped to a whisper. Chouji could feel his friend's eyes on him as he spoke but didn't give anything away, this was going to be something that would either make or break them later, and he didn't want to break.

 

"You guys ran away from your homes? I thought you moved here for a new start so you could experience life without limitations or restrictions. Why would you run away from your home like that?" Kurani wondered out loud.

 

"Because our parents wanted to use us for their own gain and they were about to sell us off to some nobleman for money," Hitomi said close to tears now. Anko turned away from the crying girl, she didn't like seeing people she actually cared about sad, Kurani moved to comfort the girl. "They never let us play with the boys in our village and would yell at us if we did something that they didn't like. They were so strict, we felt trapped!" Lin and Luna moved closer to their sister to comfort her, "all we wanted to do was decide our own future for ourselves, but we couldn't do that there, it was like we were only meant to be tools!" Hitomi was sobbing her eyes out now and they let her cry for as long as she needed to.

 

Anko suddenly turned back to them and walked over to the crying girl, she placed both hands on Hitomi's shoulders firmly to get her to look at her. "They're not going to get you guys back, any of you, you hear me?" She said with a confident smirk, Hitomi took a moment to dry her eyes before nodding her head. "Good, now that we know what you guys are going through, you can count on us to have your backs, no matter what, rain or shine," she stated happily. 

 

 

A little later after Anko and Kurani left the apartment, Naruto and Shikamaru was glaring down at Chouji, was trying to look anywhere but at his friends. "What the hell was that, Chouji?" Shikamaru asked.

 

Chouji laughed innocently, "what was what, Shika?"

 

"Don't play with us, Cho, we were right there. What was with that story you made up about us being sold off to some nobleman for money?" Naruto asked narrowing his eyes at the Akamichi.

 

Shikamaru stepped closer to Chouji, "if I didn't know any better, I would have said that looked an awful lot like some tv soap opera."

 

Chouji rubbed the back of his neck, "well, that's uhm, that's because it was a tv soap opera."

 

Shikamaru and Naruto were unimpressed, "explain," they said together. Almost robotically.

 

Chouji explained to them, a little embarrassed, that he used to watch a bunch of tv soap operas with his mom all the time when no one would play with him. He got the story off of one of the soap operas that he mom used to like a lot before the show got canceled. "So I just used that since not a lot of people used to watch the show anyways, I thought it would fit with our story," he explained. By this point, Shikamaru and Naruto were too tired to hear about anything else that involved covering up anything or what they set in motion today. They just wanted to crawl into their beds and forget about the outside world until tomorrow morning when they had to meet up with Asuma. Hopefully, they could get some simple tips and tricks that wouldn't hurt them or prevent them from going into work later that day.

* * *

**The next morning**

 

Naruto never believed in fate or destiny. He could also care less for karma. But if he did believe in either, he would have said that karma was the bitch of the group.

 

"Good morning Anko, Kurani...what are you guys doing here?" Asuma had asked once Luna, Lin, and Hitomi had arrived at the training field they agreed upon yesterday. Only, they brought with them two extra...guest?

 

"Why hello Asuma-san, it's so good to see you this morning! Our friends have told us so much about you after your 'tour' yesterday that we just had to meet you today!" Kurani said cheerfully, smiling at how the jonin seemed to be annoyed at the extra bodies on the field. "Isn't that right, Anko?"

 

Anko snickered at how cynical her friend was being, but played along, her wide smirk refusing to leave her lips. "Yep, that's right! And since they mentioned something about training, we just had to come and make sure the big scary jonin doesn't hurt our sweet, innocent friends," she sang happily.

 

Asuma could feel his left eye twitch but tried to control it, forcing himself to smile back at the two women. "Oh, is that so, well there's no need to worry about that, I would never hurt women as sweet as them," he said merrily.

 

"Oh, we know!" The two older women san together.

 

Asuma twitched again. He wasn't liking the way things were going, he thought he was going to be alone with these girls today. The little training season would have been his chance to get in closer to the girls and see which one of them he could take out first before going after the others to be apart of his little dream harem. But with Anko and Kurani here, two of Konoha's Ice Queens in the making, he was going to have to majorly rethink his plans a bit. He cleared his throat, "so, is there something that I can help you two with, I promised Luna and her sisters that I would show them some self-defense techniques today," Asuma said with a forced cheer in his voice. This was turning out to be a lot of work, but he was willing to work through it for the girl's sake.

 

Anko chuckled, "yeah, why don't you teach my good friend, Kura-chan here how to take down a guy that's twice her size."

 

Asuma looked at Kurani, who was smiling so innocently at him and looking like an angel, he shrugged. He didn't see the harm in playing along, maybe he'd have some fun with this after all. But before the two could do anything, one of the girls called out to them, "oi, can we get things started already?" Luna called out to the ninjas, getting their attention and making it plain to see how board the three were of the lesson that hadn't even started yet. 

 

"Oh, right, sorry about that girls," Asuma chuckled, then clapped his hands, "well, let's get started."

 


	4. First, a friend. Then an ally

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, Anko and Kurani are not jonin yet. I will make them jonin soon though.

Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji had decided to cut their losses with the self-defense training they were getting from Asuma after realizing that it wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. For starters, it was basics. In fact, the academy style was more advanced than what Asuma was showing them, not to say that it wasn't useful. It would be...against civilians. What Asuma taught them that day was just simple takedown moves that they could have gotten from the library if they wanted to and have Asuma give them further insight on the moves, but that would only have been useful for civilians, and maybe clan children five and under who have yet to start their training in their families style. It would give them a head start, but nothing more. As for Shikamaru, Naruto, and Chouji, it was nothing special and they could not help but feel a little underwhelmed with showing. They knew that they wouldn't get very much because of their henges, and Anko and Kurani made sure that Naruto and Shikamaru didn't strain themselves during this activity. Although the trio thought that it was nice to have someone know some of their secrets and then look out for because of it, they couldn't help but start to feel the slowly drowning effect of all their lies. They had to tell someone soon, or else they would slip up and then trouble would ensue. 

 

"How are you feeling Naruto? Are you okay now?" Chouji asked the blond after they got back to their apartment that same day after saying goodbye to Asuma and then other two. 

 

"Yeah, I'll be fine now, no need to worry about me," Naruto said as he got up off the bathroom floor and almost fell over.

 

"Whoa there, where do you think you're going?" Shikamaru said as he and Chouji managed to catch and steady Naruto on to his own feet again. Shikamaru looked into Naruto's eyes and could tell that he was dizzy, he sighed and helped the blond over to the sink. He watched as Naruto cleaned himself up before helping him to bed despite his protest. Once Naruto was laying down, he walked out to the kitchen where Chouji was making some tea for their friend, "what do you think's wrong with him? By all accounts, he shouldn't be feeling this weak still..." Shikamaru stated as he made himself a cup of tea as well.

 

Chouji shrugged his shoulders, "I'm not sure, you guys are entering your second trimester. The signs of morning sickness should have left him already or should be leaving him now." He said as he took out some salt crackers from the pantry and put some on a plate before putting both the plate and the cup of tea on a tray to bring to Naruto. He paused in his actions of bringing the tea to the blond's room to think, an idea struck him and he wasn't sure about it, "we should definitely take him to the hospital." He finally said Shikamaru turned to his big-boned friend, about to say something, when said friend continues, "I know you don't want to risk anyone possibly finding out or anything, but I want to make sure that everything is okay. You both should be checking in with a doctor at least once a month to make sure that both of you and your babies are doing well, but since the risk for you is a little higher because of your bloodline, but Naruto should at least go. Maybe we can figure out something about why he's feeling the way he is."

 

Shikamaru pouted, "I've been brushing up on some of the medicine and herbs books that my parents keep giving to Iruka to give to me since I don't go home anymore. They seem to think that school is a safe zone where they could check and see how I'm doing, and if they're doing that, then chances are, you're parents and the Hokage are doing the same for you and Naruto." He explained as he leaned back on the counter with a thoughtful look on his face, "one of the books that they dropped off last week was something on how the body reacts with chark. While I was reading it, I found a chapter on women during their pregnancy, it explains what both a civilian woman and a kunoichi goes through while their pregnant and how their chark reacts to the baby inside of them."

 

Chouji looked at his friend in interest, he took a seat at the table next to the tray, "what did it say?"

 

Shikamaru went back to making his tea, "it said that a civilian woman and a kunoichi's pregnancy is just about the same. Unless a civilian woman is carrying a child for a shinobi. Since civilian's don't have as much chakra as ninjas do, carrying a ninja's child would rather difficult on the woman and it could cause death in the child before, after or during its birth, that is if the excess chakra needed for the child does not drain the mother's system first and kills them both beforehand." He said as he walks over to the table and sits across from Chouji, he takes a sip before continuing, "in most cases, if it's only one, the mother and child are more likely to survive the terms, but more than that and the doctors would be more likely to talk about aborting the child or children."

 

Chouji chewed on the information for a few moments before looking back at Shikamaru, "and for the kunoichi?"

 

"It's less likely for them to suffer during their pregnancy even if the father is a civilian, the child would still be born with the ability to become a ninja. They could also be born a civilian with slightly larger coils than normal civilians." Shikamaru stated, "when a kunoichi becomes pregnant, their chakra naturally moves towards the area that the baby is to protect it, it doesn't encase the fetus in a chakra shell like what the voice from within Naruto had told us to do with ours. However, it does encase the area around the baby so that if worst comes to worst, the baby has a slightly higher chance to survive an indirect hit than a civilian woman does while pregnant."

 

Chouji nodded then chuckled, "that book wouldn't have anything on male pregnancy would they? It would be a whole lot easier if there was a book like that for us to read it."

 

Shikamaru nodded as he took another sip of his tea when stopped mid-sip. His eyes widen, "what if we just do that ourselves?" He asked mostly himself, he looked up to his friend to see him standing again, "seriously, even if this situation may be a once in a hundred year event or just a once in a lifetime thing. We could document it and then keep the notes to ourselves, we don't need to publish it or anything like that, we could just observe what's happening to each other and write it all down." Shikamaru's face became serious, "what's more, what if, by some chance, something like this happens to you, Chouji."

 

"Me?!" Chouji asked, alarmed that his friend would even think such a thing.

 

Shikamaru nodded, "yeah, you may not have gotten the same treatment that night as us, but what if. What if it's something delayed, what if there is some factor from that night, or a little after it, causes you to get pregnant the same as us too? I don't know what that factor maybe, yet, but still I think it wouldn't hurt to have a little know-how in our corner and if that really does happen. And, maybe, along the way, we can find a way to prevent it from happening to either of again in the future."

 

"How can you be sure that this could happen again?" Chouji asked, looking at his friend hard, he wasn't sure how he felt about what was said. However, there was something, something deep down inside of him, that said that this may very well come back and bite them in the ass later.

 

Shikamaru looked down into his still steaming cup, "I don't, but let's look at the facts. We didn't know anything until our eyes were opened that night, and now we're here. Our parents have been tow-facing us our whole life when it comes to Naruto. One minute they seem to like their normal selves when we see them, but as soon as they see Naruto, they scowl, frown, almost  _growl_ at the mere sight of him..." He shook his head as he looked at Chouji with a heavy sigh, "even if we never went to Naruto's apartment that night, even if we never became friends with him like we did, even if we didn't  _know_ him like we do now. What would that have changed?" 

 

Chouji watched his friend for a long moment before gathering up the tray and moving to Naruto's room. He stopped just outside the door, "let's talk about this tomorrow after morning, okay?" He said over his shoulder, he waited for Shikamaru's single nod before bringing Naruto the crackers and tea.

* * *

**Next day**

 

"So we're writing a book, about us, and our babies?" Naruto asked as they enter the academy grounds the next day after their usual morning routine of training and studying. Shikamaru and Chouji just told the blond what they had talked about the day before and he was a little surprised that they came up with this idea. He thought they were just going to make a scrapbook or something to memories the time when they, three male best friends, had to deal with living on their own while preparing for babies to come out of them. That sounded better in his head. Anyways, to write a book about them actually going through what they were going through sounded pretty cool and all, and Chouji was getting better and better with his medical ninjutsu studies, Naruto could see the Akamichi becoming a great medic ninja someday. Maybe even better than that Tsunade person that Iruka sensei was talking about the other day. Still, he had a feeling in his gut that if they were going to do this, they were going to have to first make it easier for them to move around the village both as themselves and as their henges, since disappearing right after school is starting to cause more and more problems for them by the day. He sighed and stepped in front of his two friends just down the hall from their classroom, a frown marring his features.

 

"What's wrong Naruto, you don't like the idea?" Chouji asked.

 

Naruto shook his head, "it's not that, it's the other stuff I don't like."

 

"You mean our cover?" Shikamaru asked, "we've gotten by with it so far, if it wasn't for a certain story being added to it, we would have been able to keep it up." His shot a sharp glance at Chouji who blushed, he sighed, he wasn't made at Chouji, the story did make Anko and Kurani believe them and leave them along during that time. However, Naruto was right, they were starting to drown in the lies they were telling and the dam was only seemed to be filling up more as time went along. They needed a plan and fast.

 

"I was thinking," Naruto started, pulling Shikamaru from his thought, "what if we talk to Hinata today?" He asked, his two friends looked at him curiously.

 

"Why?" They both asked.

 

Naruto thought about it for a moment before explaining, "she has the Byakugon. I was kicked out of class that day when we learned about dojutsus because Kiba had decided to frame me for one of his poorly played pranks. But, from what I read in the library, the Byakugone could very well help us more to learn about ourselves and what's happening with the babies." He said with a smile, then blushed a little as he looked down at his feet and started wringing his hands, "plus she kinda sort of has a crush on me, and I thought that she would want to help out if we told her, instead of running to the Hokage and spilling all of our secrets."

 

His two friends stared at him dumbly for a long moment before Shikamaru snapped out of his daze to run to the window. He looked outside and up to the sky, while his two friends watched him curiously. When he looked back at them, they had expectant looks on their faces, "well, the sky isn't falling, so I think the earth is safe for now," he smiled at them.

 

Naruto pouted at the Nara heir, "not funny, I can be smart too!" He protested, "have a little faith in me, like I'm really hurt you'd say that, Shika!" He said with watery eyes.

 

"Shika, that wasn't nice, apologies to Naruto now before he starts crying and makes us late for class," Chouji said with his arms crossed as he stared at the ravinette.

 

Shikamaru pouted as well, "troublesome," he said as he walked over to the teary-eyed Naruto. He paused for a moment, looked at Chouji, Chouji only stared him down, "fine." He looked down both ways for the hall they were in before enveloping Naruto into a warm hug, "I'm sorry Naru-chan, I didn't mean to make you cry. Are we good now?" He asked as he listened to the sniffling blond that was still slightly smaller than them. 

 

Naruto dried his eyes, "it's okay Shika, I forgive you," he said giving them a bright, true smile. He brightened even more as he grabbed Shika by the hand, "come on or else we'll be late."

 

Shikamaru allowed himself to be dragged along by the energetic blond, "troublesome blond," he said with a small smile. Chouji heard the comment and could only chuckle at his best friends, he was definitely happy that they were friends.

* * *

 

 

Hinata Hyuuga is many things. Smart, shy, strong when she gets over her shyness and focuses on her goals, and most of all, observant. However, one thing she is not is a stalker. Yes, she does have a crush that she daydreams about almost daily. Yes, she does follow her crush around after school, a little before school, spies on his during lunch....this isn't helping, is it? Whatever, she's not a stalker! She is  _observant._ She observes many things, not just he crush, she sees things and the way people interact. She sees the way people treat each other, some are kind, some are not, but whenever it came to her crush, no one was ever kind. No one ever said hello to him, unless it was the Ichiraku folks. She knew just about everything she could about her crush whenever she foll-I mean, observed him, she knew where he lived and how his friends are, where he liked to eat, etc. But when he and one of his friends end up throwing up in the middle of a lecture, she couldn't help but wonder what she was missing. She found that they, her crush and his friend, seems to be under the weather for the past few months, and every time she tries to follow them after school or find them around the village, she can't find them. Not even with her Byakugone!!She was very worried about them, not just Naruto, but his friend, Shikamaru, too. And she wondered about Chouji as well. So, when she sees them enter class while Iruka sensei is taking the roll, and there weren't any more seats left because everyone in the class had arrived early because they were supposed to be going on a field trip today. Shikamaru was forced to sit next to her, while Naruto and Chouji had the options of sitting next to either Kiba or ino. Chouji took the seat next to Kiba and Naruto sat next to Ino after a quick game 'rock, paper scissors'. Seeing this as her chance to get some answers, Hinata did her best to play it cool and talk to Shikamaru, she found him one of the more easier people to talk to in the class, so she hardly stuttered when she spoke to him.

 

"Ano, Shikamaru-Kun, how are you and Naruto-Kun doing today?" She asked, the boy sitting next to her seemed to be fine, but when she looked over at Naruto, he was looking sort of pale. His natural, healthy tan was no longer present.

 

Shikamaru eyed Hinata up for a moment, Naruto seems to have realized somewhere along the way that this girl had a crush on him. He himself was surprised that the blond found out, he wasn't sure when because the blond seemed to be an export of hiding things that he didn't want others to see. Like how he was still throwing up when usually, a pregnant person would have finished that stage weeks before. Plus, the Hyuuga dojutsu would come in handy if they were going to document their condition. "I'm fine," he started, then wondered how far he could trust her and decided to test the waters, "but Naruto's a little under the weather this morning. He was throwing up for about an hour and could barely eat more than two bits of his breakfast on the way over here."

 

Hinata's eyes widened, "do you know what's wrong with him? Will he be okay?" She asked worriedly.

 

shikamaru shrugged as he looked over at his blond friend, "he's tough, so yeah, he'll be fine," he said in his usual lazy tone. Hinata breathe a sigh of relief as she hears this, she was relieved to this and turned her attention back to the sensei, while sneaking glances over at Naruto. This did not go unnoticed by Shikamaru because he was always aware when people who may be interested in his blond best friend. He wasn't going cock block, but he was definitely keeping an eye out for anyone who may have wanted to reenact 'the event'.

 

Meanwhile, Naruto was trying his very best not to throw up from the powerful smell of Ino's perfume. It was so strong that once he was close to her row, he smelt it and wanted to puke on the spot, but he stomped that feeling down and took the empty seat next to her. The smell only got worse as he sat, all throughout Iruka's speech about why the guard towers or placed where they are and when they are used for, Naruto was struggling not to throw up still, and the task was daunting. His face was green, his eyes watery, and every so often, his hand would find his mouth and mouth and clamp down on it to keep from throwing up or inhaling the deadly fumes. After about an another few minutes of the boring lecture went by, Ino was fed up with the fact that she didn't get the seat next to Sasuke, her crush, but in addition to that, she was now sitting next to Naruto. Naruto! Of all people, why did it have to be him!? Not only that but the dobe keeps looking like he was going to throw up, what's up with that? She did not stink! In fact, she was wearing the latest perfume created for young fashion-forward girls, such as herself. As far as she was concerned, she smelled like daisies and sunflowers, thank you very much. So the fact that Naruto just made a sound that sounded dangerously close to throwing up, she was at the end of her rope and would get her revenge, she smirked internally. 

 

"Oi, dobe, what the hell's your problem?" Ino asked a little above a whisper so that the others closest to them could also hear the conversation. Some turned around to see what was wrong, and the rest just listened, only half paying attention to what Irka sensei was saying. 

 

Naruto swallowed down his small breakfast, he didn't have enough in him to throw it up, and he was not trying to deprive his baby of nutrition like the village had done to him. All his life he has wanted someone to come to him and show that they cared, but this was not always what he got. Not until a couple years ago when he meets Chouji and Shikamaru and they became friends. He was still feeling guilty about the event of  _that_ night, but his friends didn't blame him. They kept telling him that it wasn't his fault, that the villagers were the ones that did what they did to them, and that he isn't some monster because of the actions that took place that night by those men and some of the women. But when he found out that he was pregnant, it felt as though a light went off around him and was starting to see a silver lining again, like he used to when he was two before another event happened that took that light away. Now that it was back, he wasn't going to lose it again, he was determined to give it all that he got and no one was going to stand in his way, so a change had to be made. Over the past few months, Naruto had drastically changed from who he used to be, he was still hyperactive, but due to all the pregnancy stuff that was changing his body, it was only to a certain degree. He's also working with Shikamaru and Chouji at work, they wanted to see if they could get someone to somehow teach them how to improve their taijutsu away from the academy basics and into something a lot more useful. He was thinking up a way on how to do this, while still trying not to throw up when Ino opened her mouth and started talking at a volume that was sure to alert some people to their mostly one-sided conversation. The simple movement of Ino was making by turning her body around to start this one-sided event, was spreading the horrid smell all around Naruto and his stomach was turning. He couldn't help but want to curse the book that told him that most pregnant Kunoichi's would have heightened sight, smell, and taste due to all extra chakra that was beginning to circulate throughout his system by the end of the first and start of the second trimester. If what the book predicting that some of these small changes may become permanent after a second or third pregnancy, then he was hoping that he never encountered another female that wears the type of perfume that Ino was wearing right now. 

 

Ino may have smelt daisies and sunflowers when she put on the perfume. But all Naruto was smelling was generic chemicals that were meant to burn out his sense of smell completely!

 

But Ino didn't know this. 

 

Naruto did his very best not to throw up his toast, since that's all he was able to eat this morning, all over Ino. He turned away from her to lessen the smell she was emitting. "I don't know what you mean, Yamanaka-san, I am just feeling a little under the weather today, that is all," Naruto said in a way that mimicked Shikamaru's lazy tone. He was getting quite good at it too, after so many months with the Naruto under the same roof as him, as well as Chouji, who was basically taking the role of big brother to the both of them quite seriously. They were both rubbings off on each other so much so that they hardly notice it anymore. 

 

Ino blinked for a moment,  _"did he just call me by my last name? What's up with this dobe trying to act all cool all of a sudden?"_ She thought in a rage, she turned a heated glare onto Naruto that promised revenge, and her revenge usually had something to do with humiliating the other. It was her favorite kind of revenge. But how to do it, was the question. As she mused to herself on how to embarrass her fellow blond, the people that were listening in and expecting a fight was underwhelmed.

 

Thankfully Chouji was not having either of the problems that Naruto was having, he was only thinking about how far he and his brothers were advancing. They had three jobs at two locations of the village, one henge for all three, and a building that was still in need of fixing up. So far, they had managed to earn back some of the money that was pent for buying them all new clothes all at once, and not a moment too soon. Since they had to end the season early because Naruto threw up after jumping up and down, celebrating the fact on how he managed to flip Asuma's body over his small shoulders and made the man also fly into a nearby tree during a sudden surprise burst of strength that came from out of nowhere. They had enough time to get home and rest before Naruto was feeling better so that they didn't miss out on work that day since they took time off the day before. To their surprise, when they got to work, their boss announced to them that they had won the Employee of the Month award as well as the Team Player award. Both awards came with a two-day vacation and a small bonus because of all the hard work they put in, not to mention the extra work that they had been doing for their boss by finding someone to replace the three employees that had been fired and quit. They even had an interview scheduled for later on today for some girl that filled out an application a few days ago when their boss was doing a job fair thing in town. Chouji was looking forward to meeting the person that they may or may not be working with soon after the scheduled appointment. Their job as delivery workers was a little taxing, but at least they were getting some training from it, so they couldn't complain. And Ichigo and Co seem to be picking up more business since they started working there. Chouji would not admit this out loud to either of his friends, or anyone that he deemed worthy to know, but he found that actually taking up the owners offer on becoming one of the dancers was a pretty nice deal, he only went on the poles on Fridays and Thursdays, as per the agreement that was set between him and the boss. He got extra pay because of it, and he was happy about that because now they had just that much more money coming in because of his second position at the bar. He wondered how well he would do if he did it on more days, but pushed that thought to the side as quickly as it came. The didn't need to overwork themselves.

 

Now, on to the training. Because of all the chakra control they did with the leaves until now, when Shikamaru found a scroll on tree climbing in the library, they excelled in it. The leaves were meant to refine their chakra until it had more of a smooth flow to it, and the tree climbing was meant to improve control over the flow. Because they spent more time on the leaf, making it stick to themselves and then upping the difficulty by trying to spin it in the places that they stuck them, they got a little control from it as well. When they went climbing the tree with their chakra, they were pleasantly surprised by how well they were doing with it because the scroll said that it was going to take a few days before they even made it to the cent of the tree they were using. On their first try, they managed to get up close to the center than what they had first expected. Chouji had recommended that they do the exercise slowly so that Shikamaru and Naruto don't hurt themselves when they lost control of their chakra while climbing. The way they were going was very slow compared to all of their other exercise like their taijutsu practices, they had just about mastered the academy style and was only refining their skills in that area. But for the tree climbing exercise, they didn't want to chance either Shikamaru or Naruto falling down from high up and hurting themselves, and by extension, kill their babies. Slow and steady did win the race after all. Anything they learned towards ninjutsu, genjutsu, medical ninjutsu and the like, all come from the library, and yes, I did say genjutsu. It seems that Shikamaru had a skill for it that could have only rivaled Kurani in her younger days, they were contemplating whether or not to start approaching Kurani as their true selves so that Shikamaru could learn from her. They still had about a year and a half before graduation, so why not? They had a little time, and if they could make it so that they could learn all they wanted, or at least get a start on it, who would stop them? Their parents and the Hokage was under the impression that they were off in a secret location they had found some time ago after Shikaku found out their first one. Which happened to be the case. But it also was because of their work and the henge was so real, they all found out, that even their insides changed when they were using it, Naruto and Shikamaru were still pregnant whenever they henged. The henge made it clear that the small mass growing inside of them was unavoidable to show, and it was slowing starting to change their true bodies as well, but more on that later.

 

As it stood, they were all just above low genin level to mid genin level. They were all proud of themselves for accomplishing these feet and wanted to continue, by the time they graduated, Shikamaru had estimated that they would probably be high genin to low chunin level. Now that they were going to the library during lunch under a different henge so they could get into the shinobi section, they knew more than their classmates did on the subjects they were learning. When they realized this, they were slightly disappointed and wondered why the academy was only teaching the students a watered down version of what ninja life was really about. Were they trying to get them killed or something with shaded views?

 

"Alright everyone, its time to get going, we've got a field trip to go on!" Iruka said cheerfully with a clap of his hands. 

* * *

 

**Village gates**

 

Naruto hated field trips. Yes, he did get to go outside of the village on some of them, but on those few trips that they have to go outside of the village to see one of the guard towers or something, something always happens. The first time, there was some prank that Kiba pulled that involved some girl getting honey stuck in her hair and then bees came and stuck a few of the other students. Kiba didn't want to get into trouble that day, so he blamed it on the only other person known for pranking, which was Naruto. A lot of parents were yelling at Naruto that day and Shikamaru and Chouji's parents didn't let them hang around him for nearly a month! And it wasn't even his fault! He was later proven innocent after that month when Shikamaru's dad finally came back from a two-month-long mission and reviewed his case in court. Yes, court, because the parents of those kids that had been stung were trying to sue the poor orphan boy, which made no sense since he was an orphan therefor could not pay them anymore. But they realized that soon enough and changed their demands for his dead on a platter. But when Shikaku took the case, he reviews all evidence and had the most airtight case against them that the council was made a laughing stock for months. Kiba's punishment for that was two weeks in jail and one year of community service for his bad prank, which Naruto didn't find fair at all. He knew that if it was him, it would be much, much worse.

 

The second time his class was supposed to go out of the village, someone slipped something into his food the night before. He was home for almost a week and a half with food poisoning because of it. It was also the last time that he ever took free food from untrustworthy villagers that suddenly wanted to apologize to him by giving him food, but then again, he was only seven and he hadn't eaten anything in almost two weeks. He managed to survive by drinking a lot of water from the lake in the forest and telling himself that he was not hungry, the lie only seeming to fool him after gulping down a belly full of water whenever he could. It was better than nothing.

 

And then last time, which happened to only be the year before, and it was the worst. The day of the trip, Sakura was fawning all over Sasuke, as usual, with Ino mirroring her every step of the way when it happens. Sasuke was not paying the girls any mind because they were just about to head out when Naruto came over being his usual self and was asking Sakura out on a date. Sakura, of course, beat him up for interfering in her 'love life', when she was done, she went back to fawning over Sasuke when Ino made a moment that changed everything.

 

**Flashback**

 

_"You know Sakura, maybe you should give Naruto a chance? I mean, there's no way that you have any chance with Sasuke-Kun anyways, so you might as well," Ino started._

 

_Sakura rolled her eyes, "what are you talking about Ino-pig? That's no way I'm going out with the dobe, he's stupid, besides, I have more of a chance with Sasuke-Kun than you do."_

 

_Ino got made for a moment before calming down and saying, "oh yeah, well I heard that Naruto's been trying to make Sasuke-Kun into a transvestite!" She said the word as if she knew the meaning behind it, but clearly, she didn't because when she explained it, she gave the wrong definition._

 

_"What's a transvestite?" Sakura asked confused._

 

_By now, Iruka nearly had a mini heart attack from the word that Ino used so freely, while Mizuki seemed to be enjoying the show. Everyone turned to Ino, wondering the something as Sakura. Now that the Yamanaka saw that she had an audience, she let loose the false information that she thought up. "it means: a boy who is allergic to girls with brightly colored hair, like red and orange, but the color that they are most allergic to, is..." she paused for dramatic effect, "PINK! The girls in the crowd gasped while the boys looked as if they pitied Sasuke, while Sasuke himself was confused by Ino's words because he's heard his cousin Shisui use that word to describe something else. He wasn't sure what it really was because brother had covered his ears before the story could be heard further than Shisui being in the red light district and meeting very pretty women electrifyingly orange hair. He was pretty sure that is a person that was allergic to girls with brightly colored, they would most likely stay away from brightly colored hair themselves, but then again, he did not care about the conversation they were having and went back to brooding over his clan once more._

 

_Sakura was shocked, beyond pissed, and was ready to kill. She slowly turned to Naruto who was just getting up from the beat down that Sakura had given him not even a two minutes ago when a chill went down his back. He looked over at her and just knew that he was going to get beat up again, and he was right. He was knocked unconscious after that and he could only hear voices of kids cheering Sakura on, and the faint voices of Shikamaru and Chouji trying to pull the pinette off of him. He wasn't sure what happened after that, because he was passed out for a few house, and missed the trip, which they still went on despite one of the students being stuck in the hospital after another student beat them up. It was that day that Naruto stopped asking Sakura out almost completely._

 

_A few weeks later, Sakura learned the true meaning of the word that was told and informed Ino of her findings in front of the whole class just to make fun of her. But no one ever made Sakura apologize for what she did. No one made Ino apologize for what she said either._

 

**Flashback Kai**

 

Now they were heading out of the village again and Naruto just knew that something bad was going to happen again. However, this time he was prepared. Since he hasn't done anything bad but try and do his work, not that the teachers were letting him do much of it, but still, at least he hasn't ranked as the dead last anymore, so it was good enough for him. Because he hasn't pulled a prank in almost three and a half months, no pranks could really be blamed on him since he had two witnesses to back him up. But then again, there was no telling what could be said against him, so he was keeping himself on guard. And then Ino initiated the events that were supposed to get him kicked out of going out of the village. Again.

 

"So dobe," Ino started, "how come you always wear such an ugly color of orange?" 

 

Naruto looked at her for a moment and then down at his clothes, a bright orange shirt with a red Uzumaki swirl on it and yellow pants that used to be white once upon a time. These were his old clothes from when he was six, they were big on him back then, but now they were starting to fit due to his belly starting to fill in his clothing. The pants he found when he was looking for food one night in a dumpster, his orphan stipe had mysteriously disappeared again and he needed food, it was night time, the only sure time he could go outside unseen, but it was also the most dangerous because of all the drunk shinobis that would start walking around. The shirt he found one day when he was on his way to school, it was then that he realized that Shikamaru, Chouji, and himself could just buy their own clothes with the extra money they were making with their manager position at Ninja Stuff. He wondered what he would choose for his new style, something less orange, but not too dull and he just h-

 

"Oi! Don't ignore me baka," Ino said, getting annoyed that Naruto hadn't answered her question yet.

 

Naruto shook his head and looked at Ino as if just remembering that she was there, "huh, you say something?"

* * *

 

 

Somewhere on the far said of the village, a certain one-eyed jonin sneezed.

 

"You okay Kakashi?" Asked the spandex man standing next to porn reading male.

 

One-eye man lazily looked over at the other male, "huh? You say something Guy?"

* * *

 

 

Ino was made, "I asked why you don't know how to dress in any good clothes that don't make you look color-blind!" She yelled at him.

 

"Oh, is that it?" Naruto asked giving her a bored look, "I don't have money to waste just buying clothes, Ino, I'm an orphan remember?"

 

"Why yo-wait, you-you are?" Ino asked as she looked at Naruto for a second after realizing that he didn't say anything snide towards her like she was expecting him to.

 

"Uh, yeah, Ino, he is," Shikamaru said with a yawn as he came to stand next to Naruto. 

 

Ino blinked at the two, then she pushed forward, determined to get her revenge for whatever reason. "Hmpf, well since you don't have parents, then that must be why you're so dumb in the first place," she said as she heard some kids laugh had her lame joke."

 

"Yeah, I bet that's why he's so annoying too," Sakura jumped in. "They probably left him on the side of the street one day because he was too embarrassed to be around any longer," she made fun of Naruto while they laughed about it. Others were just watching what would happen next.

 

Naruto frowned at the both of them, Shikamaru noticed that Naruto gripping the bottom of his shirt so tight that his knuckles were white. Shikamaru decided that he should make something clear while Chouji walked over to comfort Naruto. "Oh, yea?" He started getting everyone's attention, "well Sasuke doesn't have any parents either and you don't make fun of him about it."

 

The laughing stopped as everyone became aware of the fact that Shikamaru was completely right. "W-well that's d-different!" Sakura yelled with Ino backing her.

 

"How?" Shikamaru asked folding his arms.

 

"Because um, because, uh..." Sakura could somehow not remember the difference that she came up with between Naruto and her crush.

 

"Because Sasuke-Kun came from a clan and saw them die before his very eyes! And by his brother no less!" Ino yelled at Shikamaru.

 

"Yeah!" Sakura said, finding her backbone again.

 

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "okay, so he saw them die before his own eye by his brother, what else?" 

 

"Sasuke-Kun comes from a clan, and he's strong, and he's cool, and, and...and he's going to awaken the Sharingan so and be even more awesome!" Ino said with a smirk, looking as if she had won the greatest argument of all time. The fangirls nodding their heads at him while the others weren't sure if they should walk away from the lame fangirls, or stay and watch, though they wanted to see what Shikamaru would say next.

 

Shikamaru remained unimpressed. "Okay, so you still haven't answered my question," he said in a bored tone, Ino looked at him as if he was stupid. He sighed, "troublesome, Look, I asked you why you don't make fun of Sasuke the same way you just did Naruto for not having parents. So far, you told me what makes them different, Sasuke had a family until he started the academy, that's true, he also came from a clan, and he also had a big brother that he used to brag about all the time. Include the Sharingan thing and he you just told me a general profile of things that everyone in this village would have all been able to find out if they were around at that time. Even I knew all of that before had without you all talking and pointing out to me, but I what I asked was, why does Naruto get treated so differently than Sasuke when they are  _both orphans_." Ino seemed to be taken aback by that, as did the rest of the people that were listening to the kid's bicker were surprised.

 

Chouji decided that it was his turn to open some eyes, people's ears were already open, "Ino, Sakura, what do you even know about Naruto? Do you know where he lives? Why does he like ramen so much? What his favorite color is? Do you even know why he gets kicked out of class as much as he does?"

 

"Well that's easy because he's an idiot," Sakura retorted, Ino nodded her head.

 

"That's not what I ask, but here's another question for you. How can either of you or even the rest of you..." Chouji said turning to the rest of the class that was listening. "How can you all call yourselves ninjas in training if you can't figure things out about one kid in class that gets in way more trouble in one day than any of you in a whole week?" 

 

Naruto folded his arms, "this is pointless guys, no one wants to listen to you guys talk about me unless you're humiliating me like those two where. I bet Sakura hasn't even noticed that I haven't even put 'chan' at the end of her name in almost a year now," he mumbled to himself as he walked forward to stand in front of the gate. He wanted to get the field trip started and over with before someone else decided to talk him some more. Chouji and Shikamaru shrugged their shoulders, figuring that Naruto was right to a degree and followed him to the front, but not before Shikamaru gave Ino and Sakura a heated glare and Chouji a disappointed one. Sasuke was oddly quite through all of this.

 

Iruka was unsure what to do next, he sure that the field trip was meant to start nearly an hour ago and they were already late from the start. Plus, Naruto was going with them this time, he was hoping that-well he wasn't sure what to hope for since Naruto's never been on a trip like this with them before. He just realized that Naruto had never been on a trip with them to the guard tower, or any of the other trips they made outside of the walls and into the surrounding forest of the village. How could he have noticed until now? Was he really that blind? He's only been teaching this class for four, almost five years, how could he not have noticed? Swallowing down his guilt, he turned to the rest of the class, "ahem, everyone, please line up, we're about to head out," Iruka said after he said that some of the adults that had gathered started whispering about something. It was on their way out that on villager looked like he was about to yell something when a mysterious black blur swooped in and took him away from sight, Iruka decides on to think about that too much.

* * *

**Later that same day**

 

If there was one thing that Shikamaru did not like about his job, it was the interviews. Obviously, the interview that landed him, Chouji, and Naruto there current job at Ninja Stuff wasn't as bad ass the ones he was focused to do to replace the people for the front registers, but still, the interviews were hard. Not hard as in, he had to do a lot of hard work that would tire him out faster before they got to go to their second job of the day. No, it was hard as in, the people they were interview were all wrong for the job! One guy, for example, came into the shop for an interview and had no idea what the difference between a Windmill Shuriken and a standard Shuriken was. Another guy came in and almost cut himself on one of the chakra blades when he was trying, and failing, to impress Hitomi with his lacking knowledge of said blade. They were only supposed to have one interview today before their break, but for whatever reason, a whole bunch of guys just started coming in with filling out applications for the job. They have never seen the extra applications before. Only aware of the owner having given out only a few during the job fair, but they supposed that these men might have taken an application when he wasn't looking or something. Either way, none of the men that came in got the job, it was all a big waste of time and they had to keep rotating between the three of them so that at least one of them was on register and two were doing the interviews so they could get through them faster. Honestly, when they clocked in, there was close to being a line out the door because of how many people showed up, and it was all men so far. Chouji was worried that the girl that they were supposed to be interviewing today wasn't scared off by the sudden change in plans, but by the time they got the line down, it was already time for their break.

 

"Oh my poor back, I'm sooo tired, when are we ever going to finish with them?" Naruto whined as he sat down and started rubbing his low back, he and Shikamaru were just starting their second trimester and Naruto had noticed that his belly was slightly larger than Shikamaru's own. He wondered if an Akamichi was one of the men there that night, put that thought out of his mind because he hadn't seen any other Akamaichi other than Chouji that night. He sighed, "this little guy's gonna be a big boy," he smiled down at his belly.

 

"Why would you say it's a boy? It could end up being a girl," Shikamaru stated as he took a drink of water from his water bottle.

 

Naruto shrugged, "I don't, it's kind of a feeling, I guess, but then again, sometimes it feels sort of like a girl's in there, so I don't really know for sure."

 

Chouji looked up from one of his medical books with a smile, "maybe I can check for you?" He asked, "I was practicing my Mystical Palms last weekend and I was finally able to tell what's what inside of most of the balloons you guys gave me. I can't say I'm the best, but maybe with a little more practice, I'll be much better, so what do you say? Maybe we can't do it now, but maybe when I get better?"

 

Naruto smiled and nodded, "yeah, sounds good to me!" He said as he looked up at the clock, he frowned, "I wish we didn't have to go to Ichigo's right after our shift, that dumb field trip wore me out with all that walking we were doing." He sighed as he closed his eyes and leaned back, "troublesome."

 

 Shikamaru snorted, "you said it," he chuckled. He then sighed when he thought of something, "we're going to have to go back home soon," he said with a frown."

 

"Hm?" Chouji looked up from his book again, "why? Our shift isn't over yet, and we still have the bar to go to later after this."

 

Shikamaru shook his head, "no, not that, I mean you and me, Chouji. We'll have to go back to our clans sooner or later."

 

Naruto eyed his best friends for a while, "but I thought you said that your dads are going to keep their distance from us from now on after our last meeting with them." He pouted, not understanding what Shikamaru was saying, Chouji also seemed mildly confused.

 

Shikamaru looked at his two best friends, "Naruto, you may not know much about this because you're not from a clan or anything..."  He paused as he thought of his next words, "but there are certain things that clan heirs have to do in order to, uh...grow into their status or whatever." He scratched the back of his neck as he thought about what he was saying before he continued. It seems that Chouji was starting to get what the Nara was trying t say, but Naruto was still pretty confused. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are rituals that take place after a clan heir's ten birthday and before the eleventh one that requires them to be with their clan for that period of time."

 

"What do you mean, like a super special birthday party with all the heir's and stuff where they pass down some sort of family tressure or something?" Naruto asked, still confused, but trying to figure it out, Shikamaru thought about the answer. 

 

Chouji was looking down at his lap, his book lay forgotten on the bench next to him. "He means that we're most likely be going on dates with potential wives and doing other things that plan our future. We'll also be upping pour training in our clan jutsu's so that we can become proficient in them." He clenched his hands into a fist, "but we will most likely be more restricted to just go from home and school during the day, so Shika and I may have to quit our jobs. Seeing as how our clan elders will start to look at us under a microscope or something similar after we turn eleven, just to make sure that we're doing what is needed and nothing that's not."

 

Naruto looked from Chouji to Shikamaru and then back, "but," he started, "but I thought you guys said that both your Council of Elders were really kind and relaxed. They-they couldn't force you into anything that you guys don't want to...right?"

 

Shikamaru down at his feet, thankful that he still could see them over his still somewhat flat belly. "My dad once said that, even though The Elders are kind enough to be like grandparents toward the whole of the clan, they can still be sharks in human skin. They take things into their own hand do what they think is best for the clan...and what is always favored by some." He looked at Chouji, they shared a look for a few moments before he sighed again, "since I am clan heir and haven't been home in a while, they will look at me the hardest, the same may go for Chouji. When the time comes, they are going to want to try and bring us back to where they think that we are meant to be, and it doesn't matter how much we scream, cry, and beg, they will not listen. It's the way that Elders work, as far as I know, anyway..."

 

Naruto stayed silent for a while before nodding his head, a determined look in his eyes, "I'm going to talk to Hinata after our shift ends. We're going to need her."

 

 

**To be continued**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a little short, yes, I know. However, things are about to get interesting in the next chapter. =D


	5. Allies

When Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji all left their second job that night, the did not really expect to end up inside of the Hyuuga compound not even a full hour and a half later. How did they end up there? Well, earlier that same day while the trio was on the field trip, Naruto had managed to get away from the other kids in the class and take Hinata to a secluded spot nearby so if the group decided to leave them behind, they would be able to catch up soon enough. 

 

**Flashback**

 

_Naruto had just managed to get away from his other classmates, telling Chouji and Shikamaru that he was going to talk to Hinata for a little while. He told them that he would tell them what they talked about later so they need not worry too much. Naruto turned to she shy girl he managed to lure away from the herd of students, she was blushing quite a bit, he knew she liked him, and he wasn't sure how to feel about that yet. He wasn't used to being liked by anyone other than Chouji and Shikamaru, his brothers, and by a girl no less. He had lived his life thinking that no one in the village beside his brothers that would ever care for him, having Hinata care for him, well, that was just so new still. He shook his head of those thoughts and focused on the task at hand. "Hey Hinata, up, I was wondering if you could do me a favor," he asked slightly shy about talking to the girl, not because she was a girl, but because she had a crush him, even though she didn't know that he knew about it._

 

_"S-s-sure, N-Naruto-K-Kun, w-what i-is?" She stuttered._

 

_Naruto took in a deep breath, trying to gather his thoughts before speaking again,"well, you see, I don't really know how to say this. I don't even really know how to explain it, but um...c-could you t-turn on your eyes and look at my belly?_

 

_Hinata was confused, "w-why, d-do you h-have a b-belly ache or something? A-are you h-hurt?" She was worried about her crush, what if he was terribly sick and him throwing up in class a few months back was the cause of some deadly illness? Or what if he had some gotten hurt by one of the villagers and, and..._

 

_"Hinata?" Naruto called out her name, drawing her out from her racing thoughts._

 

_"S-s-sorry, N-Naruto-Kun," Hinata said, her cheeks turning a bright pink._

 

_Naruto smiled warmly at her, "it's okay Hinata, so uh, could you look at my belly with you eye thing?" He forgot the name of it._

 

_"S-sure," Hinata said as she turned on her dojutsu, she looked at Naruto's chakra, seeing nothing really wrong with it. However, when she got down to his abdominal area, she saw three chakra signatures, she couldn't explain how she knew, but she just knew that they were all different. The first one that she saw, which was the biggest, was rede in color, this chakra seemed to be wild and crazy, but also somewhat calm and gentle at the same time. Next, there was Naruto's own chakra that flowed throughout his body, she took note that the red chakra was also flowing throughout her crush's body, but was minor the further out it got from the source. There were only small traces that spread out through his body alongside his chakra pathways. The last signature that she saw slightly smaller than the first two, she could see that it was a bright white color, unformed and brand new. Hinata remembered once when her mother was still alive that this was what a baby's chakra would look like while it was still developing in the womb, she proved her point when she let Hinata look at her little sister while her mom was still pregnant with her, back then she remembered that Hanabi's chakra was slightly smaller than the one she was looking at now. It was maybe twice or thrice as big as Hanabi's own before she was done. What did this mean though? She deactivated her eyes, she looked at Naruto in confusion, "why do you have three chakra signatures?" She asked, without stuttering._

 

_Naruto scratched the back of his neck, well, "well, that's what I want to ask you about. Um, c-could you let me and my friends come over to your house tonight?"  He asked shyly, but he gained his resolve soon after, he looking into Hinata's confused eyes seriously. "I needed you to keep this all a secret, I don't know why, but you care about me. You're the only other person in the class, besides Shika and Cho, that remotely likes me, so I wanted to talk to you about this, I know this might be asking a little much. But..." He clenches his hands into a fist at his sides, "but I would like to come over tonight and talk, but I don't want anyone to know about what we're going to be talking about, so, could you help me out? This is really important to me and I need someone to talk about it with."_

 

_Hinata looked down for a moment as she thought, she knew that she wouldn't be able to do much, she was only ten, how could she help. But at least she would be there to help, to listen, and her mom had always told her that sometimes the only thing a person could do was lend an ear. With that in mind, she looked up at him with determination, she nodded, "I'll do it, I want to help you!"_

 

**End Flashback**

 

So here they were, they managed to sneak into the Hyuuga compound under a henge that made them all look like Hyuugas so that they weren't suspected by the guards. Once inside, Hinata met them in the courtyard near the gate, managing to stay awake until the end of their shift so they could have this meeting. Naruto explained what he and Hinata talked about earlier that day, judging from Naruto's statement, Shikamaru, and Chouji felt that they could trust her enough to tell her something. But, until they were sure enough that they could trust the Hyuuga heiress, she would mostly be kept at arm's length for now.

 

"Okay guys, Hinata had agreed to hear us out, but like I said, if she cares as much as she's shown, then she'll be able to help us out," Naruto stated as they sat in a circle on the ground in Hinata's room.

 

Shikamaru and Chouji looked at each other, before looking at the said girl, they wanted to make sure that she didn't tell anyone, so, Shikamaru asked her some questions. "Why do you like Naruto so much, Hinata?" He asked seriously, not beating around the bush with his questioning.

 

"Oh, um, well," Hinata looked down at the ground, not really expecting that question, but at the same time, was. Her cheeks turned red a little and poked her fingers together, "well, you see, when I was younger, Naruto-Kun saved me from some boys that were bullying me because of my eyes. They pushed me down and was going to start beating me up or worse, but then Naruto-Kun came over before they could do anything else, he saved me back then." She said with a small smile on her face and chanced a glance over at her crush and blushed when she saw him looking at her as if he just remembered something, she looked back down at her lap with a slight frown, "but because he saved me, he got beat up instead. I couldn't do anything other than watch because I was weak back then, I still am now..." tears started to form in her eyes, "I never even got the chance to say thank you to you back then, Naruto-Kun. My bodyguard found me after the bullies were finished beating you up and you fell unconscious, I tried to get him to help you, but he dragged me away saying that _'I shouldn't aline myself with such people'_ and he pulled me away so we could go come. When we got back to the compound, my father pulled me aside before dinner so he could talk to me, and..." her tears came down a little harder now, but she was trying not to cry in front of the trio f boys in her room. She didn't want them to think that she was weaker than she already seemed, but unbeknownst to her, they weren't thinking anything of the sort. She took a deep breath in, the trio stayed silent as they let her continue, "he told that if I ever speak to you or go near you again, he would disown me and hurt you. So, that is why I never spoke to you before now after that day happened, I didn't want you to get hurt."

 

"What! No, way, that bastard would do such a thing just because you were being nice to me?" Naruto all but yelled, he was angry, no, he was pissed off. How could a father say such a thing like that to their own daughter? Naruto may not know a whole lot about what it was like to be apart of an actual clan, but he knows that family loved each other, no matter what. So to hear this from Hinata, it was a little hard for him to imagen. 

 

"Naruto, calm down, you don't want to wake up everyone in the compound, do you?" Shikamaru hissed, after working such a long shift tonight, he had a bit of a headache. Not to mention that he and Naruto had to dip and dodge a few regular customers that were starting to take special notice of them since they started to show a little in their henge form. Shikamaru's henge didn't look at all pregnant at the moment, but it did look like he was filling out a bit, somehow some of the extra weight from the baby bump was distributed out in some places, such as his hips, thighs, and rare end. Naruto only looks lightly pregnant in his henge form since he was showing more in his natural form, in his henge from he looked about two months pregnant with the same effects as Shikamaru in his henge form. Chouji, as far as they knew, wasn't pregnant, but for whatever reason, seemed to be sliming down a bit. They still didn't know why that was, even though Chouji was eating the same, if not a little more, than what he usually eat on daily basis, in fact, the last time they checked his weight, Chouji had  _lost_ seven pounds and they were starting to worry about him more. Chouji's henge seemed to be showing the lost weight well enough that he got extra tips throughout the night, even though that was good financially, health-wise, not so much since the Akamichi clan need their weight to do jutsu and was how their bodies were wired, for an Akamaichi to  _lose_ was a cause for disaster. Yet Chouji didn't feel ill or sick or anything from the loss of weight, even though it was a small amount now, they did not want that number to add up later and cause them more problems, especially since they might be down to just one tenant in their building soon if Shinto kept requesting that Anko leave or he did. The whole situation seemed all too troublesome to the ten-year-old Nara. Not to mention that His and Chouji's birthday was coming up in a few months. So troublesome.

 

Naruto looked over at Shikamaru and realized that he was still in the Hyuuga compound, he blushed and sat down, "sorry guys."

 

"Its okay Naruto, I understand where you're coming from with that before I moved in, I wouldn't have believed that a father could be so mean." Chouji stated as he rubbed circles on Hinata's back, he frowned and sighed, "but now? I'm not too sure about that."

 

Shikamaru nodded his head in agreement, "yeah, it seems there are a lot of people in the village that is hiding one big secret. I think it might be from the younger generation," he shrugged. 

 

Hinata dried her eyes then, she sniffled and smiled at Chouji for comforting her, she never got much of that anymore. Not since her mother died. "Thank you, Chouji," she said with a small smile, the Akamichi nodded his head and returned his smile with a warm one. She took in another breath to recover her nerves, suddenly she didn't feel so nervous being around them so much, she still felt butterflies in her stomach when she looked at Naruto, but they were dull now than before. "Okay, I don't know anything about what's going on with you guys, but, I do agree with Shikamaru. I've heard and seen a lot of people talking bad about Naruto-Kun, but I don't know why they always mention something about a fox and a demon...I think this secret might have something to do with that, I guess." 

 

Suddenly something clicked inside of Shikamaru's head, the words that he had also heard from the villagers and then the conversation he overheard from his parents that night. It was starting to form some type of idea in his head of something vague, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it just yet. If they thought Naruto was some sort of fox demon, then they would likely want to protect themselves from him by doing things to him that would deter Naruto from hurting them. That may include the treatment that he's seen Naruto received from the villagers time and time again whenever he happened to be on his way to meet up with Chouji and Naruto. It was always something that hurt the blond either mentally or physically, though it was always resolved to just glares, whispers, and name-calling behind his back, some even dare to do it even now whenever they get a glimpse of the blond walking through the gates of the academy. It made him frustrated that they would keep doing it, even when he and Chouji were right next to him, he remembered one particular whisper that talked about Naruto brainwashing them and he wanted to yell at them so bad, but he had to let it go. If not, they would probably blame Naruto for his actions against them.

 

He sighed, "anyway, let's not talk about that right now," he said as he turned towards Hinata, "earlier you said that you took a look at Naruto's belly because he asked and you saw three chakra signatures?" He, Chouji, and Naruto looked at Hinata questioningly, two curious on why that was, and on wondering if he was having twins or worse, triplet, he was worried about that a little more than anything else. Twins would be more work, twice the worry, twice the expenses, but also twice the love, which he didn't really mind about, yet still, he was worried, they were on a budget after all, and even though they had money saved up, they would not be able to keep working the way they were. They were in the academy, the babies would need to go to daycare when they were at school, and then they had to think about missions, missions outside the village would take days, weeks, sometimes months. What would they do then?

 

Hinata nodded at Shikamaru, "yes, the chakras I saw were Naruto's, which was blue just like anyone else. But then the second chakra I saw was by far the biggest in the body, it wasn't like normal chakra, it was more like a...red mixed with orange, kind of like a fire in a way now that I think about it."

 

"Red and orange?" Chouji asked Hinata nodded.

 

"Is that good or bad?" Naruto asked worried, subconsciously putting a hand on his growing belly.

 

"I don't know, but it didn't really seem harmful when I saw it, it seemed as if it was calm If I was to describe it, it would more or less remind me of a campfire, I used to go camping with my mom whenever my dad was too busy working to be with us at night." Hinata though for a moment, not sure how she would explain the last chakra she saw, "the third chakra signature was blank, pure white, like how a baby's chakra would look."

 

"You can tell the difference between a baby's and its mother's chakra?" Chouji asked in awe, he's read about how a baby's chakra would form over time in the womb, but he didn't think that it was distinguishable from the mother's. He guessed that it made sense since a baby's chakra was still new and developing, pure white is a sign of being untouched, as it got older, then it would turn blue he assumed. 

 

Hinata nodded, "yes when my mother was pregnant with my little sister, she let me look at her belly. She told me that a baby's chakra is white because it was untouched by the world around it, however, their chakra would sometimes take on a darker shade of blue depending on different things, such as age, strength, and stuff like that. She used to be a medic when she was still alive and wrote a couple scrolls and books on the subject and others like it, but they never got published." A sad smile came across Hinata's face as she remembered her mother. 

 

"Whoa, that's amazing, I didn't know that, none of my textbooks say anything about that," Chouji said in awe. "Say, Hinata, if it isn't too much trouble, could I maybe borrow some of those scrolls and books? I would like to study them, maybe it could help me become a better medic."

 

Hinata's eyes got wide at that, "you're going to become a medic, Chouji?" She asked, she always wanted to become a medic like her mom, but her dad refused, saying that as the clan heir, she had to be a combat ninja. Being a medic would only make her a burden to her teammate, so she was unable to study the art. But, if Chouji was going to be a medic, even though his clan was a combat type, then she would definitely try to be a medic now. She wanted to honor her mother's memory and follow in her footsteps, she also heard stories about a great medic ninja named Tsunade Senju, from her mother of course, who was a frontline medic ninja with monster strength. If she could one day surpass Tsunade, then she would know that she was not what her father and the elders claim her to be: weak. 

 

"Yeah, I'm studying the art so that I could help these two," Chouji said with a bright smile. 

 

"Yep, we're hoping to be grouped together a team later when we graduate," Naruto chimed in. "From what Shika said, he would be the brains, I'm like the super cool spy that can get in and out of places and stuff, and Chouji would be the one that would heal us when we get hurt on a mission," he explained.

 

Shikamaru nodded, "yeah, that's what I was thinking, but there's no guarantee that that's what will happy. We may have to find a way to pull some strings with the Sandime to make that happen, but I'm 70% sure that it will. We already have great teamwork down packed," he supposed that they could trust Hinata so far, she didn't seem to be the type to betray anyone. He doesn't think that it could hurt to have her as a friend and ally either, with her dojutsu, she could probably become a great medic if she put her mind to it. 

 

"Yeah, yeah, hey Hina-chan, why don't you be a medic too? I mean, don't you already know a lot about the body too, so you would be a great medic that any team would be lucky to have!" Naruto said excitedly with a blinding smile aimed at the blushing Hyuuga girl.

 

"T-t-than-nk y-you, N-Naruto-Kun," Hinata said, her stuttering making a comeback.

 

"No problem Hina-chan," Naruto smiled, he then turned to Shikamaru and Chouji, "so? What do you guys think, can we trust her or what?"

 

Chouji nodded, "I would think so," he agreed.

 

They turned to Shikamaru, said boy sighed, "yeah sure, why not..." he paused to yawn, he was starting to get really tired now. "Well, I guess we should tell her what happened to us, I guess," he said lazily/sleepily.

 

"Tell me what happened? Tell me what?" Hinata asked confused.

 

Naruto and Chouji's smiled faded from their faces, they looked at Hinata, "um, before you do, could you look at Shika's chakra too?" Naruto asked, Hinata was even more confused but did as she was asked, maybe that would give her some of her answers. However, when she looked, she saw that Shikamaru had two chakra signatures, one blue and one white, but it was smaller than the one that was in Naruto, reminding her of Hanabi's when she first saw it. She looked to Naruto and Chouji for answers, telling them what she saw but Naruto continued, "so since we got that out of the way, I guess I'll start. I happened a little over three months ago on October 10, the day of the festival..." 

 

The trio took turns telling Hinata all that had happened to them that night, skipping over more of the graphics stuff and getting to the point. Yet, when it came to Chouji's part since he still hadn't told them what really happened to him that night when those guys took him away from them. Shikamaru and Naruto were both under the impression that he was only beaten and drugged up like them, but that didn't seem to be the case. "I didn't want to tell you guys about what happened to me that night because I thought that it was something that I had to deal with now, it is still surreal to me, like a bad dream that never was supposed to happen in reality." Chouji started, he looked down at the ground, not wanting to look at either of them, "when they took me away, I don't really remember what they did to me, but I do remember the feeling. They put something in my arm that me sleepy and my vision was really blurry, I could barely make out any faces...suddenly I felt something really, really sharp and really hot between my legs. Before I could think on what it could be, all I could feel was a pain, so much pain there that I couldn't even think of anything else but that...I screamed and begged them to stop, but they laughed at me, their voices were distorted in my ears...because of the drug they gave me before I guess...I couldn't do anything. I couldn't think. I could move. I just screamed and screamed for what felt like hours and hours while they did something, I guess I was probably bleeding a lot down there at the time and they didn't want me to die. I remember one voice saying that I was a clan heir and they would be screwed. If I died, they would pay for it if anyone found out that they killed a clan heir. At some point, the pain started to stop a little, but then they did something that turned my whole upside down...I threw up on someone I think because then they started hitting me and beating me up. After that, I'm pretty sure that I blacked out when I woke up again, I saw you two in the room that we were brought into, but I couldn't remember what I do now back then, it was all one really big blank in my mind back then."

 

Chouji took in a shaky breath as he tried to calm himself down, he then realized that he was crying, why did he start? He didn't know, but now that he realized it, all of the hurt he felt from the memory came back to him, there was an ache in his chest and he didn't want to think about anything concerning that night ever again. He still didn't look up at his friends. Naruto and Shikamaru both had tears in their eyes, they never, not in a million years, think that they would see Chouji cry. He would pout sometimes, but never would he cry like this, he didn't even realize he was crying until the end. Shikamaru forced himself to move closer to his best friends, embarrassing him into a hug, that made the Akamaichi start to cry harder, sobbing in sorrow. Shikamaru couldn't understand it though, it wasn't crystal clear, but it was obvious that Chouji was probably mutilated in some way that night, but when he came back into the room, there was no sign of blood anywhere else other than on his face and along with his arms. So what did they do to him? They may just about share everything they own now that they were living together, but they didn't really change in front of each other or look at each other when they were in the bathhouse. But the question still stood, what the hell happened that night? What did those monsters do to his best friend?

 

"U-uhm, C-Chouji, m-may take a look at you for a moment? I-I mean, you chakra, y-you don't have to get undressed or anything," Hinata asked shyly with a blush on her face, she didn't want to be rude, but she felt like she had to do something. Sitting there just listening was making her feel helpless now and she had already made up her mind to help them all out, whatever they needed, she would to it. 

 

Naruto wiped his eyes, "what are you going to do?" He asked, worried about his friend.

 

"I'm going to use my Byakugan to see if I can find out what those guys did to him," Hinata stated. She gestured to them, "to you all, I don't want to sit back and what you guys break down like this, I want to help, I already said that I would."

 

Shikamaru looked over at her, he could see a fire in her eyes that seems to have gotten brighter as Chouji's story unfolded. He slowly pulled away from Chouji, "will you Byakugan be able to see that kind of damage? It's already been over three months since it happened."

 

Hinata nodded her head, "yes," Shikamaru looked into her eyes for another moment before stepping away from Chouji, but still holding his hand, making sure that he knew he was there for him. Hinata nodded her thanks and turned on her dojutsu once more. Even though it's already been three months since their unfortunate attack, the Byakugan would be able to pick up traces of the damage that happened to the body. What people don't know about the body was that the chakra pathways always runs in one direction and is also a spiritual pathway as well, even though a person's soul did not have any real shape or form that could be seen as anything other than as light of some kind. If enough damage is done to the body, then it would also do damage to a person's chakra and to some extent, the spirit that passes through the body alongside the chakra pathways. Now, this is not to say that if a person was to damage the chakra pathways, they damage a person's soul, no. The so-called 'spirit energy' that passes through the body alongside a person's chakra would be the energy that is used alongside chakra, it is also the energy that tells a person what their nature was, this was the energy you had to train with to make elemental jutsus work. But no one knew that nowadays because they didn't deem it important enough to know, yet, if someone does enough damage to a person that it would hurt them both physically and emotionally, that damage would be visible within the spirit pathways. Like the saying goes, 'it's easy to heal the body, but it's harder to heal the soul', or something like that. With that said, Hinata would be able to see the amount of damage that was done to each of their bodies...and she wasn't liking what she found.

 

  
Tears came to her eyes when she saw all the damage, they seemed to have mostly healed on the surface, but not internally. "It kind of looks like your bodies have been remade in some way," she said when she was finally done with all of them.

 

"What do you mean? How?" Naruto asked.

 

Shikamaru analyzed Hinata for a second, "what exactly did you see?" 

 

Hinata dried her eyes, "don't know how, but, from the amount of damage that had been done to your bodies, you should be in the hospital right about now. There were traces of toxins in your system that I have never seen before. There were a lot of scaring around your...lower parts, and um...I don't know how, but, you guys somehow have ovaries and a womb."

 

"Over-what?" Naruto asked the teachers at the academy didn't want him to learn anything that would help him to reproduce obviously enough.

 

Hinata nodded, "yeah, ovaries, they're the things that store and create eggs that will help create the babies that you guys are carrying."

 

"Oh," Naruto said, then frowned, "maybe I should take up a little medical ninjutsu study too, just in case I may need in the future," he thought out loud to himself.

 

Chouji wiped his eyes of his own tears, now that he was starting to calm down, "what did you see for me, Hinata?" 

 

Hinata's frown deepened, "it was the same thing, but...yours seem more...natural looking I guess." She thought for a moment while the others looked at her confused, "I've studied the bodies anatomy since I was able to remember, I had to for my clan's taijutsu style, the Juuken or Palm Strike. I know the difference between the male and female anatomy..." she looked at each of them seriously, but also worriedly, "you guys seemed to be taking on a more female anatomy."

 

"How can that be? I don't really look all that different? Do I?" Naruto asked, worry taking over his as he passed his hands over his own body to see if he was somehow changing right now without him knowing it.

 

"No, no, Naruto-Kun, it is not happening outside," Hinata said trying to calm his worried mind. "It's happening more on the inside than the outside," she gained a thoughtful look, "I might be wrong about this, but, I think that once the changes are done on the inside, they will start to show on the outside as well."

 

Naruto's eyes got wide, there were so many things running through his mind as he took in the information. However, the only intelligent thing he managed to say about it was, "I'm going to have boobs?" He asked, not in alarm, but more in wonder, "how big do those get anyway?" He asked as he thought out loud, his brain finding something interesting to take him away from his worrying. 

 

Shikamaru sweat-dropped at his friend, "only you Naruto, only you," he sighed. He turned from Naruto to Chouji and then finally on Hinata, "how can you be so sure about this?" He asked, "is there a way you can tell what's going on, and we still aren't too sure on what happened to Chouji that night, though, I kind of have somewhat of an idea of what might have happened."

 

Chouji looked at Hinata and Shikamaru, "did you see it?" He asked, "what they did to me, I mean, can it be fixed somehow?" He asked because while he was reading his medical textbooks, he could not find anything useful from any of them, they were mostly saying the same thing over and over. 

 

Hinata gave him a sad smile, she shook her head, "I'm sorry, I don't know enough about this to tell you anything. I would like to tell you that you can, but I just don't know."

 

Naruto got up and went over to sit by Chouji, he placed a comforting hand on his shoulder to let him know that he was there for him as well as Shikamaru. "Don't worry, Cho, we'll figure this out together," he said with a small smile.

 

Shikamaru smiled at his best friends before thinking to himself for a while, he had been taking all of this in silently. He looked up at the ceiling in Hinata's room, "how long do you think it would take for us to show?" He asked softly before closing his eyes, "will this effect is any other way..." he was mostly thinking out loud.

 

Hinata looked down at the floor for a while, she had to think. She wanted to help them, but how? How could she when she couldn't even beat her little sister, even though she could, she didn't want to hurt her. Then it came to her, "I'll become a medic ninja too," she said matter-of-factly, she looked up at them all, "I'm going to become a medic ninja too so that I can better help you guys out. I already know the human body inside and out, so with a little practice and studying, I could use what I already know and apply medicine to it," she smiled, "Chouji and I could do it together. We can study and train together, feeding off of each other and push each other further," she looked at Chouji, "if you don't mind me tagging along that is."

 

Chouji smiled a small smile, "I wouldn't mind at all, but..." he paused as he thought about how he would phase his next question. "You said that we all have ovaries and that we're slowly changing from the inside out...did you see the reason why?"

 

Hinata thought back on what she saw inside of their bodies, more importantly, their pathways. "When I looked, I saw that the three of you had some red chakra inside of you, but not as much as Naruto does. It's more like a small pocket of chakra inside of you, it made was like a slowly forming... a ball I think or a small gathering of the red chakra that I saw inside of Naruto. I think it might be the thing that is the cause of your changes."

 

Shikamaru, Chouji, and Naruto were all wondering about that, what was that red chakra? What was it doing inside of Naruto in the first place? Was he born with it, or did someone somehow add it to him? Shikamaru wondered, "hmm," he looked out the window, "it's getting late," he said as he slowly goes to his feet. "We should be going now before someone cames looking around to see why you're lights are still on when you should be sleeping," he looked at his friends, "we can meet tomorrow. After school we can go somewhere and talk some more about this, maybe do some training, we can figure out what else we're going to do then."

 

Chouji and Naruto both nodded at Shikamaru's plan as thye got up from their spot on the floor. Hinata got up from her spot as well, "I don't think I can follow you guys out of the academy. I always get picked up by my bodyguard after school, my father makes me come home for training so I don't get to hang out."

 

Naruto thought about that for a moment, "henge? A genjutsu maybe?" 

 

Chouji shook his head, "no, the Hyuuga Byakugan is able to look passed Byakugan, we'll need something better than just that." 

 

"We could take another route," the blond suggested.

 

Hinata shook her head, "my bodyguard will be looking for me, if I don't come out when the class is over, then he's going to come inside to get me. He's done it before, and so have my other bodyguards have done it before too." 

 

Shikamaru nodded, "then we'll just have to think about that in the morning, if we don't get up and get to school as usual, then people will supsect something is wrong. We have to act as if nothing is wrong, this meeting never happened, got it?" He stated sternly, "if anyone her knew that we talked tonight, then they are going to start thinking something bad is happening and from what I've gathered, your dad is going to be a pain to deal with."

 

The others nodded to him, they knew that they were most likely walking on thin ice as it were. It was a little unsettling to them when they realized that no one from the compound had come by to check on them yet. To see why it sounded like there was a boy in the clan heiress's bedroom. They agreed to talk about everything tomorrow after school, Hinata then instructed them on how to leave the compound without getting spotted by the guard. Once Naruto and the others left, Hinata got changed into her night clothes and went to bed, however, unbeknownst them, there was once person that did hear what was said, and he was going to find out more about their meeting before doing anything else. He wasn't going to expose her, at least not yet, he would have to put some piece together before he could make his dicition on what he wanted to do about this. For now, he would stay in the shadows and find out as much as he could until he felt he should do anything about this at all, maybe confront them? Either way, things were about to get interesting. 


	6. School days and Training!

"Oh man, I'm soooo tired! When is our day off coming back?" Naruto whined as he walked to school the next day with his friends. They, of course, were in henge as Luna, Hitomi, and Lin, respectively. After meeting with Hinata last night after work, they went home and tried to get as much sleep as they could before going to school the next day. It turned out that they could only get about four and a half hours of sleep after coming home. But at least they were able to get some sleep while they could.

 

Shikamaru yawned, "it's only Wednesday, Naruto, we've got about two more days to go before we can sleep in." 

 

"Yeah, well I wish it was zero, I want to go back to sleep right now!" Naruto pouted as they got closer to the Academy, they turned into an alleyway that would lead them to another street. They looked around before transforming into their usual selves and left the alley.

 

"Don't worry Naruto, we'll be able to have plenty of rest tonight." Chouji reminded him, "remember what the boss said last night at the end of our shift?'

 

**Flashback**

 

_"Oi, Hitomi, Luna, Lin, come here, I have something to tell you three." Came the call of the boss just as the mentioned three were about to walk out._

 

_Looking at each other, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Naruto stopped in their tracks and turned around to head over to their boss's office. Stepping inside, Shikamaru and Naruto got this strange tickly feeling in their bellies that didn't put them to ease, while Chouji's stomach felt like it was about to come out and say hi. Don't get them wrong, they actually don't hate their boss, he was the easiest man to get along with as long as you are true to your word, and that's what they have been. They have managed to never come late to a shift and helped clean up when they were finished for the night. And since they were such hard workers, the boss even gave them a small bonus from time to time, although it was all 'under the table' money that he wouldn't admit to. He didn't yell at them to do anything, they never made him feel like he had to bother getting them into lines like some of the other girls that worked the bar and pole. All in all, the trio were starting to love their job here at Ichigo and co. But, when they entered the boss's office, there was a man there, he was sitting off in the corner of the office, there was something about him that just felt...dangourus. How could they trust this shady man to not try something with them when they weren't looking? In fact, this wasn't the first time that they had laid eyes on this man either, he was tall, handsome to some degree, and he dressed well, always showing up in nice suits with his hair well combed. And he wasn't soaked in cologne like most of the other men that wore nice suits to the bar, not to mention that he was one of those big tippers that went after the prettiest girls on the poles and some of the wait staff as well. The henged trio was no exception. However, to see this man in the boss's office after all the dancing and drinks were over, well it just wasn't sitting well with them._

 

_They still had to be on guard around men like this off shift._

 

_"Yes boss, did you call for us?" Hitomi asked, looking directly at the boss and not trying to make eye contact of any kind with the well-dressed man._

 

_"Yes, Hi-chan, I did." The boss said, he usually gave nicknames to the girls that did their jobs well and didn't cause him much trouble. He gestured to the chairs in front of him, "please, have a seat you three, there are somethings I would like to discuss with you. I would also like to introduce you to this old acquaintance of mine from childhood. He came for a visit about month ago and has seemed to have taken a liking to some of the girls here. He would like to make an offer to you three as well._ _Hitomi, Luna, and Lin turned to the man and bowed to show respect. They had to make their boss look good, even though they were technically done with their shift, they had yet to clock out. It was part of the job actually, whenever there was an important guest coming, whichever girls the boss chose to entertain them would have to make him look good. All the employee's of the bar have had at least one turn each throughout the month. This would be their second turn in this month._

 

_"Good night, sir, we are happy to have you," they said in unison. Just the way they were taught by their senior after they started working here._

 

_"Haha, what a wonderful greeting," the man said cheerfully. He turned to their boss, "Ichico, you have trained these fine ladies well and I am happy with your selection this time around."_

 

_The boss, Ichico, folded his arms and leaned back in his chair with a grunt, "well it's about damn time, you lech."_

 

_Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji all shared a look, they were confused, they knew that much. However, since the boss said that this man was an acquaintance of his for a long time, they guessed that this has happened before, but with a different outcome. "Um, pardon me," Naruto/Luna spoke up, "but why have you called us in here. Or rather, what is it that you would like to talk about?" She asked curiously, Lin and Hitomi nodding their heads along with her, indicating that they would also like to know._

 

_"Oh, right, well, I might as well tell you since he's expecting something more this time." Ichico sighed, "listen up ladies, this man is Bonzon, he's a scout for the Vongola family. I can't tell you too much about them right now myself, but just know that they are very powerful."_

 

_"Vongola?"_

 

_"Family?"_

 

_"Scout?" The trio shared a look with each other, this seemed very suspicious, "what would a powerful family want with a couple of bar girls?" Chouji asked, it was a little embarrassing to call themselves such a thing, but it was sort of true. They did work in a bar._

 

_"Hahaha, these three are funny, Ichi-kun, where'd you find them?" Said Bonzon to the man, even though they didn't say anything all that funny._

 

_"I didn't find them, they found me." Ichico stated, "anyways, this guy's been coming here for a while now. He keeps saying that he's looking for something, but he never tells me anything and we've been playing a guessing game for about a year and a half now. However, it seems like he's finally found what he's been looking for."_

 

_Still confused, Lin decided to ask, "which would be...us?" She looked at them, they nodded, "why? What for, if you don't mind me asking."_

 

_"Oh, no, not at all." Bon said happily, "you see, there is a...situation that have been rising overseas for a while now and I have been searching all over for a certain someone. I was given orders from the boss himself to bring this person in as soon as I find them. But it has been a long journey to get to this point, ah, but I'm glad we all finally made it."_

 

_"Made it to what? What's going on?" Luna asked._

 

_Ichico slammed his fist on the table, scaring the trio and making Bon laugh. "Bon, stop playing with people's emotions, and just get to the point already!!"_

 

_"Fine, fine, you're no fun, Ichi-kun." Bonzon pouted a little before his smile came back to his face. "Fine, I'll tell you this, the job that I would like to give you three is simple. You would only need to work part-time at it and it doesn't really require you to do anything much really. Some cooking, some cleaning...I can see that you three are very attached to this place, so I won't be moving you too soon. But, you will need to keep in contact with me as much as you possibly can while on the job."_

 

 _"You still haven't told us what this job really entails, Mr.Bonzon." Lin sweatdropped,_ "what is this guy even talking about, the only thing he's told us is that we would have to do some cooking at cleaning. Even though we do that already anyway, I would like to know more."

 

_"Hm? Oh, right, right, well, all you'll have to do is...babysit this child for us," Bon took out a picture from the inside pocket of his suit. The trio took the picture and looked at it carefully. The picture contained a child with grey-white hair, dark brown eyes, and fair skin, almost pale. He looked to be about one year old or less in this picture, all thought since Bon was told to start looking about a year and a half ago, they guessed the boy in this picture would be about two and a half by now. In the picture, he didn't look very happy at all, his clothes were torn and ripped in many places, and it looked like he was beat up recently. There scratch marks all over him and the background showed that he was in a place not suitable for children. Broken buildings, broken glasses, the place looked to be in ruins. They looked back at the man questioningly, "now, now, I know what you're thinking. 'Why would a powerful family have a child in a place like that?' Right? Well, I'll tell you right now that this kid isn't really apart of our family, not really anyway," this confused the trio as well. Although, Ichico didn't seem to be listening to what was being said as he looked through the paperwork_ _on his desk, which wasn't all that much. "Listen, ladies, I don't really have all that much time to be waiting for your answer, so I will have to explain everything to you tomorrow." Bon wrote something down on a notepad he took out from his suit pocket and handed it over to Hitomi since she was the closet. "Please meet me at this spot tomorrow evening at four on the dot. We have much to discuss," he stood up from his chair and turned to the boss, "I must be taking my leave now, Ichico, I'll see you around."_

 

_"Yes, have a good night. I'll have one of the other girls escort you out," Ichico stood up from his chair but Bon shook his head._

 

_"There's no need for that, I can show myself out." He nodded his head to the girls, "I hope to see you three on time tomorrow, good night."_

 

_Lin, Luna, and Hitomi stood up and bowed to Bonzon as he left, "goodnight, have a safe trip." Bon gave them a backward wave as he left the office._

 

_Once he was gone, Ichico turned to them, "since he gave you this job, I will let you skip out of work tomorrow so that you can prepare. In fact, you can take the rest of the week and come back in on Tuesday night when you're ready."_

 

_Hitomi, Luna, and Lin were all surprised by that, "seriously boss? Are you sure?"_

 

_Ichico smiled at them, "it's no big deal, Li-chan, besides, working with a family like that will be good for you. Especially since two of you are pregnant."_

_"Ye-WHAT?!" Luna asked in a panic,_ "did he really find out about them?" 

 

_"You guys can relax, I won't fire you because you're pregnant. It actually happens a lot around here with other bars, that's why most of our girls happen to be teen moms that ere fired from other bars in the area." Ichico explained, "since my own mother was a teen mom, I know how hard it was for girls when they're going through something like this. Even though you didn't tell me right away, I'll let it slide, however, if you keep something like this from me again, then I'll have to either suspend or fire you. I'm not the type of guy that likes too many surprises."_

 

"This guy's so laid back after work,"  _Shikamaru though to himself. "Uh, don't you mind if I ask how you found out or how you knew about that?"_

 

_Ichico waved his hand at them, "not at all, there's a certain way that people hold themselves when they are going through something. I have been around long enough to know what a pregnant woman is like when she's trying to hide it from others. You three may have hidden it well, but I knew what to look for." He chuckled, "I actually went to the academy and graduated the top of my class too."_

 

_Shocked, the trio could not believe what they were hearing. Not one, but both of their boss's used to be ninjas! "If you graduated, how come you're running this bar, boss?" Luna asked._

 

_"Well, the thing is, after I passed the second genin test with my teammates, no one really told us how much danger we would be putting ourselves in." Ichico got a somber look on his face, "after about a month of training, we were sent off on our first C rank mission outside of the village. We've been sent out before, but not on a mission as high as that one."_

 

_"What happened on the mission?" Chouji asked curiously._

 

_"Both of my teammates died..." Ichico explained the room was filled with silence as they waited for him to continue. "The mission was to deliver s message scroll to a nearby village, we were on our way back when we were surrounded. I didn't know what to do, my teammates and I weren't on the best of terms still, but we did our best to rally together. We fought the best we could, our jonin sensei giving us guidance and support as we fought alongside each other. We were heavily wounded by the time we came down to the final enemy. By then, we as genin were too tired to continue on with the fight, but our Jonin sensei was still holding his own. Suddenly, there was an unforeseen enemy that showed up, it was such a surprise that no one was truly prepared for it, and that costed our sensei's life. He managed to distract the enemy long enough for us to escape, but ever since that day, we were never able to forget what he did for us. We went our separate ways after that, I'm not too sure what happened to the others, since we don't talk, but I know one of them happened to have opened up a small cake shop on the other side of the village. The other started training as a medic, but that's all I've heard about them since that time._

 

**Flashback Kai**

 

The memory was heavy on them, but still, it made them think. In addition to having few extra days off, they had to meet that guy in a few hours to talk about a job. There was also that thing that Ichico said about his experience as a genin. It made them wonder if they were ready to be genin themselves, especially since they were expecting. Naruto frowned, "oh man, I almost forgot all about that! Not only will we have to take care of our own kids and ourselves, but we'll have to take care of someone else's kid as well? I don't know if I can handle that while holding two jobs, it's just too much."

 

"Ah, yeah, but think about it Naruto, if we do this, we could have some extra money saved up to help out in the future. As long as we can figure out a way to watch this kid and keep up with our school work, homework, and parttime job, it shouldn't be that hard." Chouji explained cheerfully.

 

Shikamaru and Naruto sweatdropped at their friend's cheerfulness, "you really think it's that easy Cho?"

 

Chouji nodded, "of course, are you guys forgetting that we have the clone jutsu? If we can master that, then we can keep an eye on this kid even when we're not there. Plus, it doesn't use up all that much chakra either, it's a win-win."

 

"Oh? You might have a point, but still..." Shikamaru thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Whatever, we can talk about this later, we've got to get to class before we're late. Not to mention, Hinata will be waiting for us too."

 

"Oh! I forgot we had to meet her today, damn, we've sure got a lot on our plates today," Naruto observed as his friends started towards the alley's exit.

 

"Yeah, but as ninja's, this should be considered as training so that we can keep our cool in the heat of battle. Going in without a plan could cause problems if we're not careful." Shikamaru explained as they neared the academy gates.

 

"You got that right," Naruto sighed, "man, all this thinking, and planning  got me tired, I want a nap."

 

"Same here," Shikamaru and Chouji agreed with him. 

 

On top of one of the nearby buildings, the three didn't notice that they were being watched. A figure wearing an all-black suit, covered by a furred jacked, stood still as a statue with a can in his hand at his side. He watched as the three boys walked into the academy building without much care in the world, or so it might have seemed to the untrained eyes. Another figure appeared behind him in the same outfit, but without the fur and cane, instead, he wore black gloves. "Boss, I have secured the child, and are meeting with his new caregivers in a few hours." 

 

The man that was staring down at the trio turned to the newcomer. "Nice work, Bon, I hope that they get along well. I don't think that anyone could handle him better than that man's son..." the man with the fur coat walked away from the edge of the building. "Secure the payment and sweeten the deal, I'll be heading back once the deal is set."

 

"Oh?" Bon asked, "and would shall you have me do?" 

 

"You will remain here until further notice, it shouldn't take them too long to acquaint themselves with him. But just in case, I would like to have my eyes and eyes on the ground. You can never be too careful heir placements nowadays." The man in the fur jacket walked off the roof, making his way downstairs while Bon stayed on the roof. 

 

Bon turned to face the academy and smirked when he saw Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji arrive at their seat near the back of the class. They were right next to the window today, which was good. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to observe them for a little while beforehand. It would make setting the deal much easier for me that way," he said as he jumped off the room, he landed in front of the academy gates. Looking around, he noticed that no one seemed to have noticed him, yet, so he continued on walking into the academy grounds,  _" this should be a fun day,"_ Bon thought as he entered the building, his eyes flicked to a tree near the entrance of the door before it closed, it was for a split-second. No more, no less. He smirked and continued on his way to the desired room,  _"yes, very fun indeed."_

 

* * *

**Same time, outside**

 

Shikaku and Chouza let out a breath of relief, "do you think he noticed us?" Chouza asked.

 

"I can't really say for sure, but I think we're safe," Shikaku answered as he held a hand over his heart. "Man, this isn't good for my heart."

 

Chouza stood up and looked out at the academy door from behind his hiding spot. Luckily enough, the tree near the door was big enough to hide both of them, or else they would have been spotted when Naruto and their son's walked through the gates. "Shikaku, do you know who that guy is? I haven't seen him around this part of the village before."

 

Shikaku looked at Chouza for a second before shaking his head. "Not a clue, I've seen him hanging around the redlight district before, he mostly goes to that rundown old bar. Ichigo and co. He seems to know the owner pretty well because I've seen them talking on the few occasions I go there myself."

 

"Oh? So you know something then?" Chouza asked curiously as he turned to his best friend and old teammate. 

 

"A little, not much to tell though. He's a foreigner, I know that much. I can't really say where his accent is from, and he's always dressed well. Icould say that that guys is either a rich man on a long vacation, or someone that works for one. Either way, I don't like him hanging around the academy like this," Shikaku stated as he folded his arms in front of him. He looked up to the sky as a bird flew by.

 

"So, shall we watch him or act?" Chouza asked.

 

Shikaku watched the bird in the sky fly round and round over the academy for a few seconds. "...Neither, we've been summoned by the Hokage. We'll have to leave him for later, or better yet," he thought for a moment before he started walking off. "Come on, let's go tell Hokage-sama about our little rat problem, he might be able to do something about it." 

 

"What if he can't? He's a pretty busy guy y'know, Shikaku," Chouza explained as he followed his best friend.

 

Shikaku smirked and turned to his friend, "then we'll just let him know that we'll handle the problem so he doesn't have to. Telling him is just good manners, my friend," he then went up in a puff of smoke.

 

"Hm? I suppose," Chouza said before he followed Shikaku's lead and turned into a puff of smoke.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To Be Continued...?**

 

 


End file.
